Realizations
by lilysunder8
Summary: During a battle with Dagur, Astrid, Toothless, and the other riders watch as Hiccup is stabbed, and they think he was killed. But did he survive? Set in Race to the Edge
1. Chapter 1

Hiccup's POV

Hiccup's plan was going perfectly. Dagur and his fleet had attempted to attack Dragon's Edge, but they had been routed at every turn.

"Oh, Hiccup, brother!" Dagur called from down the cliff side.

"Uhh, haven't we been over this? I'm not your brother," Hiccup yelled back as he dashed over to Toothless who was glaring at him impatiently.

"Well, isn't that the nicest thing you've said to me all day."

Hiccup snorted, clambering onto Toothless' back and snapping his prosthetic leg into place

"You might not be my brother _anymore –_ which I can think we can agree was entirely your fault – but _Heather_ ," he paused for emphasis, with a crazed laugh tumbling through his next words, "Heather is my sister, which I suppose I only know because of you, so your fault again – isn't everything your fault?"

"And your point is?"

"Do I have to have a point?"

Hiccup groaned. He and Toothless jumped up into the air and took off, soaring in a wide circle over the battle. Astrid was also flying on Stormfly, performing expert maneuvers to avoid missiles and firing with near perfect aim at the Berserkers' ships. She really was amazing, but he was still worried for her safety.

Snotlout and the twins were crashing about, raining general destruction down upon whatever area had the misfortune to host them. Fishlegs and Meatlug were flapping about, ensuring that none of the invaders managed to slip into Dragon's Edge or onto their boats where they had access to bigger firepower. Once he and Astrid and completely sunk the Berserker fleet, effectively cutting off the attackers' way of escape, the second half of Hiccup's plan would begin.

"HiccccuuuuuuuUUUUuuuuuUUUU – " He glanced down at Dagur, who continued to drag out the second half of Hiccup's name, fluctuating his voice and sounding unhinged.

"WHAT?" He shouted above the yodeling cry, directing Toothless to land a short distance away from Dagur.

"I wasn't done speaking! Rude, much? Anyways, about Heather. I thought you should know that, uh, well, she's here! With me! Isn't that great?"

"Heather is here?" Hiccup asked. "What do you mean?" Beneath him, Toothless growled deeply, stiffening.

"Right here!" Dagur yelled, stepping to the side and gesturing to one of the boats, where Hiccup saw with a shock that Heather was being held roughly by two large Berserkers. She was unarmed, and obviously very frustrated with her situation. One of the men holding her had a sword pointed at her throat.

Seeing Hiccup's horrified expression, Dagur laughed maniacally. "Now, get off that dragon, and, well, no promises, but she does have a better chance of surviving the next thirty seconds."

"Heather!" Hiccup shouted, trying to discern whether she was alright. He saw her yelling something back frantically, but she was too far away, and he couldn't make anything out.

"Chop, CHOP, _brother_ ," Dagur screamed.

"Whoa, whoa! I'm getting off, just calm down, Dagur. We can discuss this," he pleaded, as he slowly dismounted Toothless. The night fury bristled at Dagur and growled again, shifting position so that he was in between Hiccup and Dagur. Hiccup held up his hands in a placating gesture, his mind swirling as he searched for a way to rescue Heather.

* * *

Heather's POV

On board Dagur's boat, Heather struggled between the two Vikings who held her.

"Sorry about this," one of them muttered in a gruff, low voice. "We won't hurt you."

"HICCUP!" She screamed as loudly as she could. "DAGUR WON'T HURT ME!" He had released her when Viggo had captured her, and she knew that in some twisted way he loved her enough that he wouldn't hurt her. But Hiccup had no way of knowing that. He was going to get himself killed because he was just stupidly selfless and brave enough to risk his own life so she wouldn't get hurt.

Heather watched with growing panic as Hiccup slowly got off of Toothless, obviously trying to reason with Dagur. Even though the dragon positioned himself in front of Hiccup, protecting him, Heather knew that Dagur had to have a plan of some sort.

She looked around desperately, for anything that could get her away from these two meatheads. Then she spotted Astrid, flying Stormfly just a short distance away.

"ASTRID!" She screamed, and the blond Viking girl jerked at the sound of her name. She turned, and her eyes widened at the sight of Heather held between the two men.

And just in that moment, with Astrid distracted, she didn't spot the net which hurtled towards her and Stormfly.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

A shriek cut through Hiccup's spinning thoughts. He turned in its direction just in time to see Astrid and Stormfly getting hit by a net and begin plummeting towards the ground, far below. His heart stopped.

"ASTRID!" He started to run in her direction.

"Not so fast!" Dagur yelled. "Hiccup, you better not move or Heather will die!"

His heart had started again, and it was beating so fast it was hard to think. "Toothless!" He said, "Go help Astrid!" The night fury was immediately gone, dashing in the direction of the girl and her dragon, spiraling out of the sky. His heartbeat steadied somewhat. Toothless would be able to reach her in time.

He turned to face Dagur, who looked flabbergasted. Despite his rattled nerves, Hiccup shrugged. "What? You told _me_ not to go, you didn't say anything about Toothless."

Dagur started laughing. This laughter was more terrifying than any of his previous moments of humor. Not because it sounded insane, but for the opposite reason – because it was a perfectly normal, sane laugh. "Well, that's just amazing!" His voice was cheery, and it had regained its unstable edge. "And here I thought I would have to go through the trouble of separating you and that dragon, and you just go and do it for me! I would say thank you," all of a sudden his voice got low and dangerous, "But I don't like you."

Dagur began circling him, holding out a sword and pointing it straight at Hiccup. As Hiccup slowly adjusted his stance to continue facing Dagur, he saw, with a sigh of relief, that Toothless had managed to plow into Astrid and Stormfly before they hit the ground, curling around them to block the impact. They all appeared uninjured.

When Hiccup looked at Dagur again, they had switched positions. Now Hiccup's back was to the sea, and Dagur was facing him.

"Are you okay?" He yelled, looking at Astrid again. She nodded, obviously a little shaken up, but fine nonetheless.

* * *

Astrid's POV

Astrid had not enjoyed that fall. Normally, she lived for the moments when she and Stormfly could get that kind of speed. But she didn't like to think what would have happened that time if it hadn't been for Toothless.

After they hit the ground, she was on her knees in an instant, using her axe to saw through the ropes that contained her and Stormfly. She crawled out of the net, helping Stormfly to shake it off as well, then turned to Toothless to thank Hiccup. For a moment, she stared at the empty saddle, then whipped around searching for that stupid, stupid, stupid…

She spotted him on the dock, confronting Dagur. He yelled at her, asking if she was okay, and she nodded, doing her best to hide her shaking hands. Ridiculous. They had never been in any real danger, she trusted Hiccup enough to know that.

But she didn't like how he was alone with Dagur. He wasn't even armed – where was that stupid shield of his? She sighed.

"Come on, Toothless, let's go rescue Hiccup. How does he _always_ manage to make this happen?" She started towards him.

A man's deep war-whoop interrupted her plans. Gripping her axe tightly, she whirled around and swung it into the air where it clashed with the weapon of one of the Berserkers. She leaped into action, overpowered her adversary in a second, and then defended herself against the other five Vikings who had jumped them. Even though her every fiber screamed to go help Hiccup, she couldn't find a way to extract herself from the battle. She growled and cast one last glance at Hiccup.

 _That idiot better take care of himself._

* * *

 ** _Author's Note:_**

 ** _So, this is my first fanfic. Yay! I love HTTYD so much. Probably more than I should. *cough* Uhhh, is that even possible? :)_**

 ** _*SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT* You should probably stop reading now if you want everything to be a surprise! But for those who'd like to know what type of story this is going to be:_**

 ** _I just thought it would be interesting to have a situation with the whole group where they BELIEVE that Hiccup is dead so we can see how they react to it. But because I really hate deathfics (no offense or anything, but I'm really very emotionally attached to my bby Hiccup), no one will be dying in this story._**

 ** _Anyways, I couldn't find any stories that I really liked that dealt with that. A lot of stories are centered around Astrid and Toothless WORRYING about Hiccup's wellbeing, but there were none where they actually truly believe he's dead, and none that really delve into what Toothless' reaction to this would be. So I thought I'd give it a shot, and I ended up really liking writing this, so there might be more stories coming. :) Thanks so much! Also, please leave reviews, I need all the help I can get!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Hey, I just wanted to thank all of you guys who liked and followed my story! I really appreciate it! :)**

 **So I'm thinking this story will probably have around ten chapters. Please leave reviews, I do need all the help I can find! Enjoy!**

* * *

Hiccup's POV

Hiccup watched with dismay as six Berserkers ambushed Astrid, Stormfly, and Toothless, but his fear was unfounded. They were obviously more than a match for the attackers. He turned his attention back to Dagur, who was scowling at him.

"You know, I'm really sick of you. You used to be my brother – didn't he used to be my brother?" he turned to ask a Berserker who was running past, shrieking, his clothes on fire.

"Dagur… what am I supposed to say? You tried to kill my dragon!"

"Oh-ho! _Your_ dragon? Oh, no, I am sorry, Hiccup, but – uh, what do you call him? Toothless? Weird name – the night fury is MINE."

Hiccup warily watched Dagur approach. He slid back a step, but felt his good foot hit the edge of the dock. Dagur continued speaking.

"I am going to take _your_ dragon, and I am going to crush him! That night fury will be MINE. And the first step towards that?" He took another step towards Hiccup, brandishing his sword.

"Getting rid of YOU!"

And with that, he plunged his sword into Hiccup.

* * *

Astrid's POV

Astrid continued to fight the Berserkers who had joined the squabble. She glanced over her shoulder at Hiccup again, checking to make sure he was still alright. Dagur had him with his back to the edge of the dock, and was waving his sword around and yelling crazily.

That was it.

"Toothless!" she yelled. "Hiccup needs help!"

The night fury turned and began bounding off. She wheeled to follow him, doing a backflip off the back of the Viking she had been strangling, gave a salute to all her attackers, and followed Toothless. Stormfly joined them, and she clambered onto Toothless, knowing that they would be faster if she flew.

That was when it happened.

She looked up, and the whole stupid world collapsed.

Dagur shoved his sword through Hiccup's middle. The only sound she heard was her own scream, ricocheting through her brain. She couldn't even think, she and Toothless just exploded forward. Dimly she recognized that Toothless was also roaring, a sound which didn't resemble anything she had heard before.

Hiccup fell backwards, crashing into the ocean, immediately falling out of sight. She and Toothless were moving so fast, faster than she would have believed possible if she had been able to think or breathe.

But as it was, she didn't even register the pain as the giant metal net whacked them out of the sky, or as the mound of Vikings jumped on top of her. She struggled, but the only thing she could fully process was the sound of her own screams.

* * *

Toothless' POV

The metal cage which they put Toothless in didn't matter. It didn't matter, it absolutely didn't matter, except it did matter because he couldn't get to his human.

His human.

Hiccup.

Toothless had seen when that deranged man had stuck his sword straight through Hiccup's stomach. That was not a good place for a sword to go. And then Hiccup had fallen, into the water, where he couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe. Hiccup couldn't breathe?

Toothless knew he should have been with his human. If he had been there, his human would be able to breathe.

It felt like that sword had gone through Toothless' stomach. How could Hiccup be gone? Not breathing?

And now Toothless would never see his human again. Toothless couldn't breathe.

The cage didn't matter. Except it did.

* * *

Snotlout's POV

When Dagur had killed Hiccup, Snotlout had been on the opposite side of Dragon's Edge with the twins and Fishlegs.

He was beating those Berserkers so easily. Puny as they were, they stood no chance against the might of him and Hookfang!

"Snotlout! Snotlout! Oy, oy, oy!" He pumped his fist in the air as yet another Berserker ran screaming away from his flaming monstrous nightmare. He laughed as a thrill of pride ran through.

That was when he heard the screams.

They were Astrid's screams, and Toothless' roars (they sounded more like screams, though) and someone else was screaming too… was that Heather?

Then Snotlout saw Hiccup standing there, with a sword straight through his body, and watched as he toppled backwards into the water and disappeared.

And Snotlout – Snotlout just froze.

He didn't particularly like Hiccup. Hiccup was skinny, with a weird annoying nasally voice, the opposite of a warrior. And he was the chief's son! Honestly, how could a Viking like that (if you could even call Hiccup a Viking) be the chief one day? Yet, everyone treated him like a hero! Including Astrid. And if Snotlout was being honest, this bothered him. He'd had a crush on Astrid for the longest time (she was super hot). Yeah, yeah, he knew she didn't like him. He even suspected she had a thing for Hiccup. Which, whatever.

But if Snotlout was being really, really honest, he respected Hiccup. That skinny twerp had stood against all of the other Vikings in defense of dragons. He had defeated the Red Death. Snotlout himself wouldn't have Hookfang if it wasn't for Hiccup. He had never seen anyone or anything defeat Hiccup, so even though he tried his best to be a pain in the butt, when it came to their group, he never questioned Hiccup's role as leader and looked to him for instructions during emergencies like this.

Which is why he froze. His brain stopped working.

 _Hiccup? Oh no, oh no, what do I do? Better ask Hiccup – wait, no, no, uh, Astrid. But she's – no! What do I do?_

And when he was hit with a net, he just fell. He fell until Fishlegs caught him.

And then Fishlegs took charge. FISHLEGS.

He ordered them all to leave – to retreat, to head to the opposite side of the island. "We don't have enough riders left to defeat them all, with Astrid captured and Hiccup –" his voice cracked, and tears slid down his face – "and Hiccup gone, we need to go back to Berk and get reinforcements."

Snotlout jumped up at this. "What about Astrid? You're just going to leave her?"

"No," sniffled Fishlegs, "But we need help from Astrid's team to get her back. We need a plan."

Tuffnut, who had been riding Barf and Belch with Ruffnut, uncharacteristically silent, spoke up, "A plan? But doesn't Hiccup always…"

A grim silence descended on the group. Shock filled all of them. Finally, Fishlegs beckoned them all to follow, and they retreated to the other side of the island to wait for the Berserkers to leave.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:**

 ***SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT* Uhh... it's the same spoiler I gave you in the first chapter. Just for those (like me) who need to know whether or not there's a happy ending.**

 **So, I just wanted to say again that this is _not_ a deathfic. Hiccup is not dead, everyone just thinks he is. I know, I know, I'm a terrible horrible person, I just thought it would be interesting to explore how each of the characters would react to this. And then, of course, since Astrid and Toothless are Hiccup's biggest peeps (best friend and future-girlfriend, respectively), of course I had to draw out the tension for them.**

 **So, uh, just a warning that there will be some very depressing things from Astrid's and Toothless' perspectives in the coming chapters (grieving process y'all), but hopefully their reunion (expect major Hiccstrid) should make up for it. :)**

* * *

Hiccup's POV

When Hiccup looked down at the sword sprouting out of his stomach, all he felt was surprise. Even as all of his energy melted away and he found himself splashing into the water, he couldn't feel any pain. The water closed around him, and he slowly sank deeper.

Hiccup's thoughts were muddied and slow, but he stared at the receding light, waiting for Toothless to appear and come pull him out. When this didn't happen, Hiccup realized with a pang that something must have happened to his dragon.

Everything was growing darker, and Hiccup doubted it was entirely because he was sinking deeper in the water. Suddenly, something nudged him. Even as the world slipped entirely away from Hiccup, he watched the scauldron grab his metal leg with its mouth and start to drag him away.

* * *

Snotlout's POV

Searching for Hiccup's body was the worst thing Snotlout had ever done. The Berserkers had left hours before, and ever since they had been diving through the waves, scouring the ocean floor for the chief's son. There was blood in the water, and every time Snotlout went down, he expected to see Hiccup's body, gruesome with the sword sticking through his stomach. But it never happened, and a sensation of numbness slowly settled over him.

He surfaced from the water again to find the twins sitting on the dock silently, staring at the water.

"What are you doing?" He yelled angrily. "Why aren't you helping us find Hiccup?"

It was hard to understand. Hiccup had always been right about everything, had always known what to do, had always bossed them around. And now they were searching the ocean floor for his body, and Astrid and Toothless were gone, taken by Dagur, and now the twins were just sitting there silently, and everything was just wrong!

Without looking up, Ruffnut said, "We're never gonna find him." Tuffnut, similarly emotionless, added, "He could have been swept away by a current or eaten by a fish."

The energy drained out of Snotlout, replaced by an emptiness he couldn't explain. He hadn't even liked Hiccup! But he never wanted Hiccup to… It just wasn't…

Fishlegs came up out of the water. He looked at the others. "What – what are you doing?" he asked. His voice was higher-pitched than usual, and as he continued speaking tears came to his eyes and his voice became clogged. "Hiccup was our leader! He helped us! He helped the dragons, he helped everyone, and now he's just gone, but you won't even help me find his body so he can have a proper burial! He was a hero, and he deserves to go to Valhalla, but you're just giving up on him!"

Snotlout didn't have a response and apparently neither did the twins, but he also didn't have the energy to continue searching for Hiccup. He just couldn't.

At their silence, Fishlegs burst into tears. Meatlug had to shove him out on the land so he wouldn't drown because he had stopped trying to swim. Snotlout wearily grabbed the dock and hoisted himself up. The twins still weren't saying anything, and they all just sat, staring at the water, the silence only disturbed by the lapping waves and the sounds of Fishlegs' sobbing.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

The world was slowly returning to Hiccup. First, came feelings.

His middle was on fire. Absolute, unbearable pain. With the pain came the memory of Dagur's sword being jabbed into his stomach. He also specifically remembered that there hadn't been any pain at all at the time, only surprise. Well, that certainly wasn't true right now. He groaned. His whole body felt drained, and he wasn't sure he would even be able to summon the energy to open his eyes.

Then, he started hearing some things. The crackle of a fire. The sound of a door opening and shutting. Footsteps. Curiosity overtook his need for rest, and he slowly cracked open his eyes.

His father's face was staring down at him.

"Son! You're awake! Thank Thor."

Hiccup tried to speak, but he only managed to hoarsely mumble, "What happened? How did I get here? Dad?"

"Well, we were hoping you would tell us that, but it can wait. You were brought here by a scauldron." His father raised an eyebrow. "How'd you manage that?"

This raised a vague memory of a scauldron grabbing his leg and tugging him off. Normally, Hiccup would have ruminated over the questions this raised, such as, why did the scauldron help him? How had the scauldron known to take him to Berk? But as it was, sleep was already pulling him back down. The last thing he heard was his father saying, "Well, thank goodness you got here when you did. Gothi was able to …."

* * *

Toothless' POV

Toothless would never see his human again. And it was his own fault.

He was still in that metal cage, but on a ship now. It was dark, and no one was making any noise.

He missed his human. He could actually hear his voice, saying, "Come on, bud!" He remembered Hiccup hugging him, and he remembered nuzzling Hiccup and licking him, and he remember flying together. He remembered the feel of Hiccup's hand on his forehead.

But none of those things would ever happen again.

He couldn't stop seeing Hiccup, with that sword going straight through him. He couldn't stop hearing the splash as his human fell into the water. He couldn't stop imagining a Hiccup who wasn't breathing.

And he would never be able to get him back, and he would never be able to show how sorry he was for not being there when his human needed him.

Hiccup had always been there when Toothless needed him. He had been there when Toothless was settling his score with that whispering death. Toothless had kept pushing him away. But Hiccup had refused to leave him alone, eventually jumping off a cliff so that Toothless would be forced to accept his help.

But when his human had needed him – he hadn't been there. And now he would never see his human again. And Toothless really, really missed Hiccup.

A human, one of those humans who had been attacking Toothless when Hiccup really needed help, came over to Toothless' cage and shoved some fish through the bars. Toothless raised his head to look at the fish.

He didn't have a family. He couldn't remember what had happened to his parents. He had never seen another dragon like himself. He remembered his life before Hiccup – he remembered being very alone. He didn't know how to go back to that. He didn't think he could go back to that.

Toothless ignored the fish and lowered his head. He was very, very still.


	4. Chapter 4

Heather's POV

Heather slowly approached the dragon riders sitting on the beach. The sound of Fishlegs' sobs tore at her heart. She hadn't known Hiccup very well, but she had both liked and respected him. Watching Dagur kill him like that had been… and watching his friends suffer like this… She didn't even want to know what Astrid was going through. She had suspected that Astrid had liked Hiccup, but the sound of her screams – thinking of that sound sent a shiver down Heather's spine. She also couldn't help thinking about Toothless, Hiccup's dragon, and how fast he had flown. She had never seen another dragon fly that fast before, and she supposed the net which had knocked them out of flight had been nothing more than a lucky shot.

In the ensuing chaos, she had knocked out the two Vikings who had been restraining her and fled to the shore. The biting shame of the knowledge that if she had managed to avoid capture, Hiccup might still be alive, and Astrid and Toothless might still be free, had kept her hidden in the trees as the remaining dragon riders searched the water for Hiccup. She knew she wouldn't be able to help search without her dragon, Windshear, but watching Fishlegs give up and sob like that had finally given her the push she needed to reveal herself.

She stopped a short distance behind them and began racking her brain for something to say to alert them to her presence that didn't sound totally awful. She was saved from this when Fishlegs suddenly turned around and saw her.

"Heather. You're here," he said, still sniffling.

She hung her head. "Guys. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

They all just looked at her in silence, the wind whipping their hair around. Finally, Ruffnut mumbled, "It wasn't your fault."

Heather took a deep breath. She didn't want to say this, but it was necessary. "You have to stop looking for Hiccup." Suddenly, a ripping pain tore through her, and she had to pause to regain her breath. "I know it's terrible, and you don't know what to do with Hiccup gone. But Astrid is still out there. Astrid and Toothless. You have to go back to Berk to get reinforcements so you can rescue them." She took another breath. " _We_ have to go back to Berk to get reinforcements so _we_ can rescue them."

No one moved.

"Hiccup – Hiccup would want you to do that."

Snotlout was the first to stand. Without saying anything he began walking towards his monstrous nightmare, Hookfang. After a moment, the twins followed. Fishlegs just stared at the water. Tears began streaming down his face again.

Heather didn't have anything else she could say. She knew she cared about Fishlegs. He was intelligent and kind, like Hiccup, and she knew that the two understood each other better than the other humans. She didn't want to leave him, but she also knew that she had to rescue Astrid and Toothless, to save the ones Hiccup had cared about and had sacrificed himself to save. Just when she was about to turn away to ride with Snotlout, Fishlegs shook his head vigorously and wiped away the tears. He stood up and resolutely climbed on Meatlug, then held out his hand for her to join him.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she pushed them back down and took his hand. The dragon riders took off, headed home to Berk.

* * *

Ruffnut and Tuffnut's POVs

The twins loved noise and chaos and destruction. It was kind of their thing. Pranks? Awesome. Punching each other? Awesome! Annoying everyone? Double awesome!

But Hiccup dying… that was just.. not awesome. Really, really not awesome.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut had always thought that death was really cool. They had been curious about it, constantly joking about each other and the other dragon riders dying.

But this was not cool. This, this strange feeling, like something had been torn inside of them, was absolutely not cool.

And how in the world could Hiccup be gone? Just, gone! Just like that!

So they rode in silence.

When they arrived at Berk, Ruffnut spotted something which perked her interest.

"Is that… Scauldy?" They landed on the dock, and she jumped off Barf and began running over to the large blue scauldron treading silently in the water.

"What are you doing here, Scauldy?" She rubbed his face affectionately. He made a purring sound deep in his throat and nuzzled her. For some reason she couldn't understand, a large lump began forming in her throat making it hard to breathe. Hiccup had been there, coaching her, as she tamed Scauldy.

Someone cleared his throat behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Then she flipped around and stared wide-eyed at the person who had came up behind them.

Stoick was standing there. All the dragon riders shuffled awkwardly, and Fishlegs began sniffling again. Stoick's voice came out in a boom.

"What happened?! What happened to Hiccup? Why didn't he come back with all of you?" After a pause, "And where are Astrid and Toothless?"

Heather was the first to answer. "Hiccup… Hiccup was injured. Badly."

Stoick glowered at her. "That I know. That scauldron brought him to us."

All the dragon riders gasped, and Ruffnut turned to look back at the scauldron. "Scauldy? You tried to help Hiccup?" She whispered.

Heather continued speaking, but it was obvious that the breath she took was shaky. "Dagur attacked Dragon's Edge. Astrid and Toothless were both captured. Hiccup.. is here?"

Stoick's expression was unreadable. Tuffnut looked at him with apprehension. He couldn't tell if the chief was angry with them, but the shock of having his dead son delivered to him by a scauldron must have been unbelievable. Stoick motioned for them to follow him, then headed towards his house.

The dragon riders walked inside of the house very slowly. Stoick walked over to Hiccup's door, then opened it without ceremony.

The sight of Hiccup, lying there unmoving and pale as death, hit all of them with the force of a train. Ruffnut choked on her sobs. Emotions were for girls, _lame_ girls, and tears were even worse. But for some reason, she had a very hard time caring about that. Tuffnut just felt shock. Hiccup had always been so… smart and perfect and… now he just… wasn't anything. Heather looked as miserable as anyone could possibly look. Snotlout turned away and covered his face with his hand. Fishlegs was the only one who staggered to Hiccup's bedside, his sobs returning full force.

"What are you doing?" Stoick looked at them all strangely. Heather was the only one who heard, turning to look at him wide-eyed. "SSHHH," Stoick glared.

Just at that moment, Hiccup opened his eyes and croaked, "Guys?"

Everyone jumped, and Snotlout screeched.

There was silence.

Heather turned to Stoick. "He's alive?"

"Yes," Stoick deadpanned.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Fishlegs exclaimed, and the room erupted in noise. Everyone was shouting and asking questions. Hiccup started laughing, and soon everyone was laughing until tears began falling again. But then Hiccup winced and grabbed his stomach, and after a chorus of concerned questions, the noise resumed.

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" Stoick yelled. The room quieted.

"I'm happy to see you guys, too," Hiccup grinned. Then his smile slowly faded. "Where are Toothless and Astrid?"

Heather, who had become the unelected spokesperson of the group, answered. "They were both taken by Dagur. Hiccup, we all thought… they _still_ think that you are _dead._ "

In the silence that followed, Hiccup stared silently at the ceiling. Stoick quickly began speaking, "Hiccup, there was nothing you could have done. You almost died for your friends, what more could you have done? If you had really died it wouldn't have helped them either. We'll rescue them as soon as you're healed. Now REST."

He beckoned for everyone to leave Hiccup's room. They filed out quietly, but Ruffnut noticed Heather lingering. Hiccup's eyes were closing, even though he was very obviously trying to stay awake, and Ruffnut was able to hear Heather whispering, "Thank you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who gave reviews! I really appreciate it. :)**

 **Just a warning, this chapter is a bit depressing. :(**

* * *

Astrid's POV

A week after her capture, Astrid sat cross-legged in her cell, staring unblinking at the wall. She hadn't cried. Not once. She didn't even feel the urge to cry, as her eyes were totally dry. The thought of Hiccup being gone forever was… well, she was unwilling to figure out what it was. Anytime she started thinking about it, she pushed it away and started planning how she was going to kill Dagur.

And she _was_ going to kill Dagur. Slowly. She was going to enjoy it, too. The thought galvanized her into movement, and she began doing one-armed push-ups.

It was strange. She hadn't felt like this – this strange emptiness, this consuming desire to be the best, to relentlessly push herself physically, this pull towards violence – since… well, since before Hiccup had taken her on that first flight on Toothless. And now Hiccup was –

She was going to kill Dagur. She was going to _kill_ him.

Just then someone rattled her cell door. It opened – and there stood Dagur. A blind fury gripped the blond Viking, so all-consuming that it took every single ounce of self-control she had built up over the years to keep from launching herself at him. Instead, she forced herself to survey the situation carefully, analyzing everything. She had no weapon. Well, she could just strangle him with her bare hands. He had an axe and two guards. She ground her teeth. The chances of success were very low. She would have to wait for a better opportunity.

She casually pushed herself up into a standing position and leveled her stare at him. "What do you want?"

He laughed, sounding insane, as per the norm. "Well, uh, I'm having a slight problem with my new night fury. See, he's not eating. And I don't want him to _die,_ not after all that trouble I went through. He knows you and likes you – although I don't know _why_ … - but maybe you might be able help."

Astrid blinked. Toothless wasn't eating? The sound of his roar, rife with pure agony and fear, flashed through her mind, followed by the echoing of her own screams. She wanted to shove her hands over her ears and curl up in the corner, but she remained standing and simply stuffed those memories down into the darkest portion of her being, where no one would ever find them.

She nodded, then followed Dagur out into the hall. He babbled on in his usual unhinged manner as they walked, but she blocked him out completely. When they reached Toothless' cell, one of the guards gave her some fish and then opened the door. They shoved her through, then shut and locked it.

Her heart throbbed and ripped a little when she saw Toothless. It was impossible not to see Toothless and think of Hiccup. But what she saw scared her.

The dragon was curled up on the floor, utterly still. Dagur had told her that he hadn't eaten, but it was still a shock to see his sickly, gray scales tightly hugging his bones so that he looked gaunt. She choked back a sob.

"Toothless?" she ventured. At the sound of her voice, he raised his head. She stumbled forward, holding out a fish as she did so, ignoring how her entire arm, her entire body, was shaking violently. "You need to eat. Please, Toothless."

When she brought the fish to his mouth, Toothless just turned away and laid his head back down.

And Astrid realized – Toothless had given up. He and Hiccup had been best friends. More than that, they were family. She didn't know what Toothless' life had been like before Hiccup shot him down and then made him a new tail, but she did know that the two had shared an incredible bond. Hiccup had loved Toothless.

Panic seized her. She pushed the fish forward again and her voice rose higher and higher as she begged, "You have to eat! You can't die, Toothless! Not you, too. Please, not you, too. Hiccup loved you! He loved you so much! You can't die! You're all I have left of him. He loved you so much, and I –" she stopped as sudden realization hit her. Tears finally began filling her eyes as she thought about Hiccup. His smile, his laugh, his intelligence and bravery and compassion and selflessness. His awkward, stiff shoulders, his unique voice, his big fat heart. The tears began dripping down her cheeks. "I loved him. I really, really did. You can't die, Toothless, you can't die too. Please. Please."

She put her head down on Toothless and let herself cry.

After a moment, she felt the dragon stirring beneath her, and she sat up. She wiped the tears away and watched dumbfounded as Toothless snatched up the fish and gulped it down. Her hands trembling, she reached back and grabbed another fish, then another and another.

When all the fish were gone, she and Hiccup's dragon looked at each other, heartbreak reflecting in both of their eyes. The tears which she had held back while feeding Toothless returned, and under the force of them she crumpled.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Oh my gosh, everyone who has followed my story, thank you so much! You have no idea how much I appreciate it. :)**

 **Also, to everyone noting how depressing it is - why, yes. Yes it is very depressing. I'm very evil. :) But I'm planning on writing a whole chapter at the end dedicated to everyone just being happy and adorable together! *grins** **goofily***

 **I wanted to address the anonymous review which several people have expressed some concern over. It was posted after I published the second chapter in which Hiccup "dies", so I actually considered it more of a compliment. I've always had a sneaking admiration (hidden deep underneath all the hatred, of course) for authors who can make me really upset. To be honest, I myself have spent hours contemplating how I'll hunt down and skin Dean deBlois if he permanently separates Hiccup and Toothless in HTTYD3. :(**

 **Also, I understand that some people just don't like stories in which the characters suffer a lot, and I totally respect that preference, which is why I tried to give multiple warnings about the depressing nature of the story. Because of the offensive language of the review, however, I figured out how to take it down.**

 **But more than any of that, I just feel so grateful for all of you who told me to forget the haters and keep going. It makes me happy to know that for that one negative review, there are nine positive and supporting reviews. :) Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Hiccup's POV

Hiccup still felt like crap. Two weeks had passed since that hellish attack, and he was able to walk around now, but his entire body throbbed. He owed his life to Gothi. He didn't know exactly what she had done to save him, but he had been certain that he was going to die from the moment he looked down and saw the hilt of Dagur's blade extending from his stomach.

He wasn't afraid of dying. No, that wasn't what scared him, it was how close he'd come to dying without saying good-bye to the people he loved. Without telling the people he loved that he loved them. He had always imagined that when he went, he would be surrounded by friends and family, but when he thought of how close, how incredibly close he had come to dying all alone, underwater, without even Toothless by his side, he had to close his eyes and take a deep breath to quell the panic.

All of this was made worse by the realization which had hit him the moment after he thought he was going to die: he loved Astrid. Of course, he had known he had a crush on her when they were younger, but they had just been good friends for a long time, and it hadn't occurred to him that there was something more there.

And now, his best friend and the girl he loved were being held captive by his deranged enemy. And – oh yeah! – they both thought he was dead. Great…

On top of all this, he felt like certifiable crap.

Stormfly had shown up on Berk a week ago. No one knew where exactly she had been for that first week, or how she had escaped capture by the Berserkers, but they were all happy that when Astrid came home she would find her dragon alive and well.

The plan to rescue Astrid and Toothless, which Hiccup had been working on since the moment he was able to think straight, was going well. The rest of the dragon riders had been helping ( _trying_ to help), brainstorming ideas and such. Some of them were outright ludicrous (okay, most of them), but others were… well, let's just say they had a very good chance of working. Not to mention no one, and that means _no one_ , would ever see them coming.

The only problem with all of this was that they all agreed that Hiccup would need to be present to oversee everything and direct everyone. Stoick had tried several drills with the riders already, and the entire group had fallen apart within minutes without Hiccup or Astrid to guide them. The weight of this realization was heavy for Hiccup in more ways than one – he was still barely able to walk, let alone fly a dragon or direct an assault against the Berserker armada.

He was barely able to contain his impatience. But Gothi had warned everyone that if he remained peaceful and rested, he would heal faster. So he still slept most of the day, and during the few hours that he was awake and not working on the plan, his friends entertained him and tried to keep his mind off things.

Speaking of which, he was supposed to be sleeping now… But sleep was impossible. He rolled back the covers and slid his legs over the side of the bed. Sucking in a quick breath, he stood, gripping the bedpost for support. Then he tiptoed (as much as a one-legged Viking recovering from a stab wound can tiptoe) over to his desk where the plans for the assault rested.

The door slammed open and Snotlout sauntered in. When he saw Hiccup, he yelled in triumph. "HA!" He shouted back through the door. "I told you guys he wouldn't be sleeping, like HE'S SUPPOSED TO!" The last bit was directed towards Hiccup, who rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Okay, okay, I just needed to calculate the timing of the fire cannons to coordinate with the release of the smothering smokebreaths, and then – "

"NO. Hiccup Haddock, you are so good at ordering everyone around, that you forget you're not always in charge. Get in that bed, right now, young man!"

Hiccup narrowed his eyes and stared at Snotlout. "Well, ookay, mom." Then he limped back over to the bed and sat down. Snotlout huffed.

Then he shifted awkwardly in the doorway. For the first time, Hiccup noticed that he was holding one hand behind his back. Hiccup raised an eyebrow at him. "Snotlout," he began warningly, "What are you holding? You better not be trying to prank – "

"What are you talking about? This is just… uh, a gift, which, uh… my MOM made." He quickly walked over and threw a homemade quilt at Hiccup. It fell over his head, a soft green color, very skillfully made. "Yeah, my MOM made that, just so you know. I don't care. About you. Or any cold temperatures which may interfere with your recovery."

As Hiccup struggled to pull the blanket off his head, he heard the door slam shut and the sound of Snotlout's muttering carrying through the walls, "I definitely don't care at all."

When the blanket was gone, and Hiccup was alone again staring at the walls, he couldn't help the smile which tugged at his face.

They all fussed over him like overprotective mothers, even Snotlout a little. It was disturbing on so many levels. Then his smile fell off his face and he lowered himself back into bed and stared at the ceiling.

He really hoped that Toothless was okay. He remembered Dagur's words about conquering the dragon and a cold shiver ran down his spine. His worry over Astrid, too, kept taking over his mind, even though he tried to keep reminding himself that she could take care of herself. He knew he wasn't supposed to be thinking about those things, but it was impossible not to. He rolled over again and closed his eyes, trying to quiet his mind. Thankfully, sleep came quickly.


	7. Chapter 7

Toothless' POV

Astrid came by again. She brought fish, and although Toothless still had no appetite, he forced them down. It had been three weeks since they had put him in this cage. He was beginning to wonder if he would ever get out. He knew that the moment that they did, he would go to his human.

His human was gone. Hiccup was never again going to hug him or fly with him. Toothless knew that. He knew that his human wasn't breathing. But he had to find him and say sorry. Even if Hiccup couldn't hear.

The image of Hiccup not breathing and not hearing anything made Toothless' body convulse. The blond girl called Astrid saw it. Her jaw tightened and her eyes sparkled with moistness. Astrid's eyes leaked water a lot when she visited him. The dragon understood that this was the humans' way of showing when they were sad.

Toothless remembered what the blond girl had said. "Hiccup loved you!" It was the word love which had caught his attention. Before he met the humans, Toothless hadn't known anything about love. When he first heard Hiccup and the other humans talking about it, he had been confused. What did it mean when they said, "I love you"? But during the time he had spent with Hiccup and the other humans, he slowly realized what love was, not because anyone explained it, but because he saw examples of it over and over.

Love meant being willing to do anything for someone. Love meant always wanting that person (or dragon) to be happy. Hiccup had loved everyone.

And Toothless had long ago known that he loved Hiccup.

He had also figured out that sometimes humans talked about a different kind of love – the mating kind of love. He supposed that was what Astrid meant when she said she loved Hiccup. Although, to Toothless, this had always been rather obvious.

But when the blond girl who wanted to mate with Hiccup had told Toothless that Hiccup had loved him, Toothless finally understood why he couldn't just give up. Toothless loved Hiccup, and he wanted Hiccup to always be happy. If Hiccup loved Toothless, that meant that his rider couldn't be happy unless Toothless was safe. So Toothless had to keep eating so that Hiccup would be happy.

Even if that meant finding a way to live in a world that didn't have Hiccup, Toothless would try to do it.

* * *

Astrid's POV

Astrid had bluffed her way into feeding Toothless every day. She had told Dagur (yelled at him, really) that the night fury had been depressed and suicidal, and that it would only respond to her. She had no idea whether this was true, but she felt the need to continue to help and protect Hiccup's dragon.

If Hiccup had been able to observe what was going on, he would never, ever have forgiven her if she had allowed Toothless to starve himself to death. He also probably wouldn't have forgiven her if she had lost herself.

She liked herself around Hiccup. The girl who had been Astrid before that first ride on Toothless with Hiccup had been cold, aggressive, and mean. After spending time with Hiccup, however, she had discovered in herself a sense of humor that she had never been aware of. She also discovered that Hiccup's enormous, all-encompassing compassion was contagious. He had inspired her to be a more selfless person.

Thinking about Hiccup was hard. Astrid didn't want – she didn't _ever_ want to have to live in a world without Hiccup. But she was being faced with that challenge every day. She had realized that when she and Toothless escaped, she would have to rebuild her life without Hiccup. The fact that he was gone, totally gone, and she would never see him again, still hit her hard all the time, knocking the breath from her and making her want to scream.

When she thought about escaping with Toothless, though, she had to face the fact that the rest of the riders hadn't come to rescue them yet. Where were they, and why were they taking so long? Had they all been captured as well? Had they already tried, and failed to rescue them? What had happened to Stormfly? No one told her anything. They kept her in her cell all day, shoving food through the door sometimes, only letting her out to feed Toothless. It was ridiculous. She was going mad. She couldn't _breathe_ sometimes, through the sobs that shook her entire body.

And even though Toothless was eating, he wasn't doing much else. He just lay there, head down all day, and occasionally shudders would wrack the whole length of his body as if he was in physical pain, or he would begin breathing heavily and quickly as if he just couldn't get enough air. She had always known that Toothless was intelligent, and from the very beginning of this life in hell she had realized that she was not alone in her grief, yet the dragon's methods of grieving were so very human that she was continually awed and humbled and brought to tears by them.

Sometimes she wondered how the others were dealing with Hiccup's death. Had they found his body? Had they already held the funeral service without her, sent him off to Valhalla without her? Would she even be able to say good-bye?

Her thoughts clawed at her insides. She leaned forward and rested her head on Hiccup's dragon.

They needed to get out. But how? Guards only came to the cell when they were escorting her to and from Toothless' cell, so if she could get the key they might be able to make a run for it.

The dragon shifted slightly beneath her as it swallowed the fish it had been nibbling. She sat up and sighed. Even if they managed to get the key, they wouldn't be able to escape because Dagur had taken away Toothless' artificial tailfin, leaving her with a dragon unable to fly. In order to escape, they would need to get the key (somehow), and then search for the tailfin without getting caught (somehow), and then she would need to put it on and get them on deck so they could fly away. Somehow.

She reached back absently and grabbed another fish, which she dangled in front of the night fury. After staring at it for a second, Toothless slowly leaned forward and bit off the front half, then slumped his head on the floor and closed his big, luminous eyes. Astrid looked at the half of the fish left in her hand and dropped it on the floor with a shudder. But she continued to stare at it, the sight of the lump of pink flesh and thin white bones itching at her for some unknown reason.

"Oh, gods, that's it!" She grabbed the fish again, pushing past her disgust and carefully prying at it with her fingers. Toothless raised his head and warbled questioningly. Finally, she triumphantly raised one long, thin fish bone. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, a grin spread across her face.

"I know how we're getting out of this cage."


	8. Chapter 8

Toothless' POV

Humans were odd creatures. They were very complicated, and sometimes they didn't make any sense. Toothless watched with confusion as the blond Viking girl held up her fish bone and made a happy face, then jumped up and ran over to the bars of their cage. She stuck her arm through the bars and twisted it at an odd angle so that the bone was poking back towards the cage, then began jiggling it around.

The night fury rose from the ground on unsteady legs. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't moved around since they had put him in the cage three weeks ago.

Not since Hiccup had stopped breathing.

He padded over to where Astrid was still trying to do… whatever it was she was trying to do. Humans were very odd indeed.

"If I can just…" she gritted her teeth and strained further.

And then – the door opened!

"Yes! I did it!" Astrid turned to look at the night fury and then grinned. "No one can keep me in a cage for long!" Toothless narrowed his eyes at her. How did she open the door? And why did she look like she wanted to laugh at him?

She held up the fishbone. "I used this bone like a key, Toothless."

That made more sense. Sometimes humans did things that made no sense, but sometimes they could be very clever indeed.

But that thought hurt, it actually hurt, because his human had always been smarter than all the other humans. Sometimes his human wanted Toothless to do strange things that made no sense, but Toothless always did them because they always made sense in the end.

Astrid hurried out of the cage, motioning for Toothless to follow, and he scampered after her. As they slunk down the hall, she whispered to the night fury, "Okay, we have to find your tailfin so we can fly off this ship."

That was easy enough to understand. He also understood why she was trying so hard to be quiet as she moved. Toothless was naturally excellent at moving silently.

They slid down the halls, stopping at every corner to peer round. The walls were lined with cages, some empty, but most filled with dragons of every type and size slumped on the ground in misery. Toothless looked at them with concern and sympathy. He pulled up short and warbled at Astrid, trying to point with his head at the dragons. She looked at him with an understanding expression and whispered, "Toothless, of course we'll come back and rescue these guys, but right now we just need to focus on finding your tailfin and not alerting the guards. The dragons will make too much noise if we release them."

Toothless still wanted to free the other dragons right now, but she made sense. They continued sneaking down the halls until he saw a cage that made him pause. Instead of a dragon inside, there was another human.

This human was small and looked very weak. He was hunched over, but he shifted a little when he saw the girl and the night fury sneaking past.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" His voice sounded old and wobbly. He had long knobby fingers, which reached out and grasped the bars of the cage. There was something about the way he smelled that made Toothless snarl at him.

Astrid, of course, immediately shushed the dragon and turned to the wrinkly, old man who smelled familiar, in a very, very bad way. "Are you okay?" She whispered concernedly.

"What are you doing?" The old man repeated. Toothless began backing away. This was bad, very bad.

"We're escaping. I can help you, as long as you stay quiet."

"Escaping?" The old man rasped. Then without warning, he began to scream. Astrid lurched back, a horrified expression taking over her face. "PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING! HELP! GUARDS!" His wail echoed down the ship, carried further by the startled squawking and banging of imprisoned dragons.

"Why would you…?" Astrid breathed in horror.

The old man cackled and pushed his face up to the bars. He was incredibly old, wrinkled and covered in scars, and he still smelled horribly familiar. "You would never make it! Maybe now Dagur will give me my freedom!"

The sound of shouts and the approach of thundering footsteps broke through the clanging and screeching of the dragons.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Astrid wheeled about and started dashing away from the sound of the approaching voice.

Toothless and Astrid were now in an all out run, skidding around corners, with the girl looking around wildly for anywhere to hide. But then, Toothless saw the deranged man turn a corner and come sauntering down the hall far ahead of them.

"Well, well, well, look at this! Did you want to join me for tea? I'm having chamomile! It's quite disgusting, really."

Toothless hated this man. He remembered how this man had put his sword into Hiccup, and now Hiccup wasn't breathing, and Toothless would never be able to fly with his human again because of this crazy man. So the dragon bared his teeth and growled, crouching low and preparing to pounce. He was so angry that no other thoughts could enter his mind. The only time that had come close was when Hiccup had first shot him down and he had thought he would never fly again.

Losing Hiccup was worse than never flying again.

The dragon's rage had narrowed the world to just him and the deranged man, so that he barely noticed the girl beside him doing her human version of a growl – not nearly as intimidating as a night fury's, but Toothless knew the girl well enough to know that the crazy man should be scared.

"FIRE!" Dagur screeched. Toothless, who was already in the process of launching himself down the hall towards the man, saw that the Viking Berserkers carried those arrows dipped in dragon root which would make him fall asleep. He dodged the two arrows that whizzed towards him, not even pausing as he neared his goal.

And then he heard a cry which caused him to stumble and whirl in new terror. Astrid had been hit by one of the arrows!

For a short moment, the dragon's thoughts were gibberish, a tangle of horror and despair and rage and panic and grief. Then he saw that the arrow had only just barely grazed her thin arm, and he was so overwhelmed by relief that he forgot about the insane man who had made it so that he would never hear his human's voice again.

Some other Vikings had come up behind Astrid as well, and three of them tackled her as she stumbled from the shock of the arrow. The man who was not entirely sane yelled, "Hold her there! And kill her if the dragon makes another move!"

Toothless snarled. He began charging up his plasma blast to kill the humans who were pinning down the girl, but one of them shoved his sword under her chin until a drop of blood dribbled to the wooden floor.

The dragon was filled with such strong frustration and anger and grief that he felt he couldn't possibly hold it all. He wanted to charge at the insane man who he hated, hated more than anything he had ever hated before, he wanted to protect the blond girl who had been so close to his rider, he wanted to be off this ship, flying through the sky, but more than any of that, he just wanted his human back.

But none of that was going to happen. Toothless couldn't do anything, there was absolutely nothing he could do, except watch as the men muzzled and chained him and dragged off Astrid.

He lay there on the wooden floor of the ship, watching with slitted pupils as the deranged man approached. The longing for his human hit him so hard in that moment. It was a strange moment for him to miss Hiccup, Toothless thought, especially when he had other, more immediate concerns. He struggled a little as the man laughed in an unsettling manner, raising his hands in the air victoriously.

"Oh, the mighty night fury is MINE! He bows before me like, like… like a slave!"

But even as Dagur raised his foot and pushed it down on Toothless' snout, all the dragon could see was Hiccup's smiling face, his human scratching Toothless' chin and saying, "You're my best friend, bud! I'll never let anything happen to you, I promise."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Is this chapter less depressing?**

 **...**

 **No.**

 **Uh, it's not like I'm trying to be this depressing, but it just kind of... comes out that way. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Don't worry, though, Astrid isn't finished yet. :)**

 **This chapter was pretty long, and although it was written from Toothless' point of view, sometimes I deviated a little from how I think he actually experiences things. I think that Toothless doesn't really think in _words,_ per se, more like images and feelings. ****Of** **course, there's no way I can convey that in a written story, so I try to use simple descriptions and emotions when writing from his perspective.** **He understands what the humans say (he's very intelligent, and by this point he's spent _a lot_** **of time around Hiccup; in fact, in The Zippelback Experience, he laughs at the joke the twins made about Hiccup's "last leg", showing that he's able to understand puns - wow!), but I still don't think _he_ thinks in words. So, while I wanted this chapter to be from his perspective (I think Toothless' perspective is extremely important), I also got a little more wordy than I normally would for a dragon.**

 **Oh, and for anyone wondering, yes, Astrid picking the lock in this chapter was a reference to Camicazi (the character in the books she's based on). :)**

 **Also, I didn't specifically say, but that old man in the cage was Mildew. I don't want to go into how he managed to get himself into this situation this time, but you can probably assume it has something to do with his horrible, selfish, rotten nature.**


	9. Chapter 9

Fishleg's POV

"Come on, girl! We can do this!"

Meatlug twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the sea stack and continuing her high speed dash (well, high speed for a gronckle) through the maze of rock spires reaching up from the sea.

"Yes! Ohhh, you're so amazing, Meatlug!"

Fishlegs' praise of his dragon was interrupted by a monstrous nightmare bumping into them as it flew past.

"HA! I don't think you could be slower if you TRIED!" Snotlout jeered back at the pair. "Hookfang and I have already done a whole lap more than you, and we're passing you AGAIN!" He was so occupied with mocking the slower rider that he didn't notice the sea stack directly in front of him until it was too late. "Snotlout! Snotlout! Oy, ooooooyyyyyyyy –"

Fishlegs smiled smugly as Hookfang crashed into the rock, and Snotlout went sailing off his dragon's back and plummeting through the air, the irritating chant devolving into a screech of terror.

The twins came flapping up to watch his fall. "Whoa," Tuffnut remarked. "I think I like his new chant better than the original: 'Snotlout, Snotlout! Oy, ooyoyoyoyaiaaiaiiiieieeeeeeeeeeee!"

Ruffnut grinned. "Hehhe, good one!" They banged heads.

"Guys! What's going on?" They twisted around to see Hiccup perched on Stormfly, slowly flapping up to their level.

Snotlout, who had been caught at the last second by Hookfang, rejoined the group, his arrogance fully intact. "Fishlegs, you know what, I take that back. _You're_ not the slowest rider anymore. Now we have Hiccup, limping along on a girly dragon like –"

"I know! I know!" Tuffnut interrupted excitedly. "Like a slug with asthma! That's what you were going to say, right?"

Hiccup gave a frustrated groan. Fishlegs immediately felt a surge of defensiveness.

"You know that's not fair, Snotlout! Hiccup was gravely injured; he's not even supposed to be flying at all! He has to go slow and stay still so his stitches won't rip."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. All I hear is excuses!"

"Uh, guys?" Hiccup interjected. "I think the point of this exercise was to improve our _agility_ during flight to prepare for the assault on Dagur's fleet. Plus, we're _all_ important members of the team, and we all have our own roles to play."

"You're only saying that because you don't have your precious night fury anymore!"

Fishlegs glared. "That's not true! Hiccup's always said that, it has nothing to do with Toothless!"

Snotlout snorted. "Well, when have you ever known me to care about stuff like that?"

"You mean, stuff like logic?"

"Yes."

"Logic?" Ruffnut asked. "I'm not sure I've ever heard that word before…"

"Yeah," Tuffnut agreed, "It sounds ominous."

"GUYS!" Hiccup yelled. "Let's just… take a break for a bit, okay?"

The dragon riders flew over to the top of the nearest rock spire, landing on the top which had a light dusting of grass. Fishlegs glanced around, scanning the horizon in hopes of spotting Heather.

"Do you think Heather's found Windshear yet?" He quietly asked Hiccup, who glanced at his friend before joining him in staring at the view. Behind them, Hookfang accidentally whacked Snotlout with his tail, and he went flying down the side of the sea stack, screeching the whole way.

"AAAIIIEEEEE"

"I don't know, Fishlegs. I hope so. You know, Heather can take care of herself. She's a fighter, like Astrid."

"Aaaiiieeeeiieieeieee," the sound of Snotlout's screams slowly grew distant.

"Yeah," Fishlegs sighed. "You're right. I just wish she would have let some of us go with her."

They were silent for a bit, staring at the sun setting over the horizon. Snotlout had been rescued by the twins and they were now arguing about something – Thor only knows what. Then Snotlout was tossed off the side of the Zippelback and his screams echoed through the air again. Hiccup and Fishlegs were caught up in their own thoughts, not really hearing any of it.

"Everything's going to be fine… right, Hiccup?"

"Repercussiooooooooooonnnnnnsssss!" Snotlout's threat stretched into another shriek as he fell.

Hiccup turned and grinned at his friend. "Of course, Fishlegs! Don't worry about it." He turned back to the horizon, and his hand stretched out from his side, as if reaching for something. "Right, Tooth–"

Hiccup's hand hit nothing but air, and his voice cut off like someone had flipped a switch. For a moment his arm remained suspended, grasping nothing, before he brought it back to his side.

Fishlegs turned away and pretended not to notice, while desperately trying not to imagine what it would be like to be separated from Meatlug for that long.

* * *

Dagur's POV

Why did everything have to be so haaard?

Of course the night fury wasn't eating again. Did it _want_ to die? Maybe it just wanted to lose some weight, feel pretty again. Wasn't working very well. The emaciated look wasn't in style, as far as Dagur knew.

They were going to have to allow the girl to feed it again. It just made him grit his teeth, the thought of those two sitting together, enjoying fishy wishies and plotting together like dainty little ladies.

But how in the world had those two managed to escape? Seriously, the cages were dragon proof. As in, his cute little blue blasts wouldn't cut it.

But they hadn't used the keys. The girl hadn't had them on her, and all the sets were accounted for. It just didn't make any sense! No bullion. No sense.

At least he wouldn't have to deal with Hiccup.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Welp, I finally managed to do a (mostly) upbeat chapter! Woohoo! Fortunately for everyone involved, that was the last depressing chapter that I plan on writing. It's only gonna get better from here on out! :) Finally.**

 **On that note, don't worry about Toothless and the eating thing. He's being sneaky. :)**

 **I decided not to go into detail about what happened to Heather on her trip to find Windshear. I'm sure it was interesting, but it's not what I wanted to focus on for this story, so I'll leave it to your imaginations. :)**

 **Okay, and the thing at the end about the bullion and the sense is a play on words. It's something my dad likes to say: "You make no dollars, and you have no sense." :D The Viking's currency was called bullion.** **Heheheheheh**


	10. Chapter 10

Astrid's POV

It had been three days since their ill-fated escape attempt. Astrid had been confined to her own cage the entire time.

She wasn't done. Oh no, not by a long shot. She would get out of here or die trying. She was more worried about Toothless. A shiver had gone down her spine when Dagur had put his foot on Toothless' head. She recognized that it was a gesture of ownership and domination. It was like a perverted version of the love and respect that Hiccup had demonstrated every time he held out his hand for the dragons to choose whether they would allow him to touch them or not.

But she couldn't do anything trapped in this cell. She had no idea what was going on! For about the fiftieth time in the past month, she gritted her teeth and growled. Oh yeah, when this was all over, her jaw was going to be sore for weeks.

To bad it would never really be over. Hiccup was never coming back.

Her thoughts might have continued in their gloomy progression if it hadn't been for the arrival of a group of guards outside her cell.

"Come on, let's go," one of them ordered roughly.

She looked at them quizzically. "Where are we going?" she demanded, trying to ignore her instinctual response to attack them all, outnumbered as she was.

"Dagur wants you to feed the dragon."

She hid her surprise. Although she had told Dagur that Toothless needed her to feed him, she hadn't been totally certain whether or not it was true. Her presence might not have made the slightest difference. Or maybe it _had_ made a difference, but the dragon had given up again after they had failed to escape.

A sob threatened to break through her façade of calm. She didn't know how, but she had managed to get through to Toothless the first time. If he had given up again, she didn't know what she would do. Maybe there was nothing she could do.

When they reached the night fury's cage, the Berserkers gave her a basket and shoved her inside. Upon her entrance, Toothless perked up, looking at her. She knelt down tentatively beside him, preparing herself for whatever issue might confront her. The dragon lifted himself up a little more and nuzzled her affectionately in greeting.

"Hey, Toothless," she whispered. Sensing that the guards were still watching, she got to business and opened the basket. To her surprise, it was filled with fish.

She couldn't help but sneak a glance at the guards behind her. They hadn't figured out how she had picked the lock! Instantly energized, she reached in to grab one and held it out to Toothless.

He snatched it in his teeth and swallowed it immediately.

Astrid sat back and examined the dragon before her. She hadn't even realized that she had been bracing for the night fury to stubbornly refuse until he had eagerly gulped it down. She narrowed her eyes at him. He warbled and nudged her hand toward the fish basket again.

Of all the sneaky little…

She probably shouldn't have been surprised that _Hiccup's_ dragon had tricked the Berserkers into thinking he was depressed so that they wouldn't be separated. But she _was_ impressed, probably because there were some humans she knew who wouldn't think of something like that.

Suddenly, she felt better than she had since they had first been imprisoned here. Their first escape attempt might have failed, but now she had a second shot. And this time she would get it right. If she had thought it out properly the first time, she would have realized that night time was the best time to try sneaking through the ship to find Toothless' tailfin. She also hadn't known anything about the layout of the ship or where she should start her search for the tailfin. But during that confrontation with Dagur when they had been recaptured, she had spotted a door leading into what looked a lot like the chief's office. She would bet everything she owned that that was where they were keeping the tailfin.

But first she had to figure out how to get a bone from the fish without the guards noticing. They were still present, watching her carefully, and she supposed they were more wary of her now. She handed Toothless another fish, but this time he took a little more time with it, chewing and swishing it in his mouth.

Her mind began scrambling for a way to get the bone. She couldn't think of anything that wouldn't look suspicious. They only had so many fish before the guards would drag her back to her own cage.

She reached into the basket and grabbed what looked like a salmon. She held it out to Toothless, then jumped in shock as he put his mouth around her whole hand. His teeth were retracted, so it wasn't painful, but it was still revolting.

"Toothless!" She exclaimed, trying to pull her hand out, "Let go!"

The night fury stubbornly refused to loosen the clamp he had around her wrist, making a guttural noise in the back of his throat. Then she felt something hard brush her hand. Could it be that…

She wriggled her fingers until – there! She had it. Instantly, Toothless released her, and she yanked back her arm with a scowl.

"Seriously? You stupid, overgrown lizard, what possessed you to do that?" she lectured, as she wiped her hand off on her tunic, discreetly depositing the object underneath her shoulder pad.

Toothless settled back on the floor with a satisfied gurgle.

"Gah! That was disgusting." She shivered.

After she had fed the dragon all the fish in the basket, the guards roughly led her down the hall back to her own cage again. She waited patiently for hours, and the sun had fallen by the time the hall was completely empty. Double checking to make absolutely certain she was completely alone, Astrid pulled out the object from its hiding place.

A fishbone.

Toothless may have been an overgrown lizard, but he certainly wasn't stupid.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

Nearly four weeks since his injury. Nearly four weeks since Astrid and Toothless had been taken. And only one day left till they rescued them and finally defeated Dagur.

The day had been set, since Hiccup was finally able to walk normally again and had successfully flown Stormfly. He wouldn't be fighting in hand-to-hand combat for a while, but they didn't need him to do that. Everyone else would be doing that.

He stood inside the training pit watching as the dragon riders, both his team and Astrid's auxiliary team, ran drills. He had to admit, they looked really good. Although, it would have been a very bad thing if they hadn't looked good after a whole month of training and preparation while he healed.

The sides of his mouth quirked up as he thought that. Well, it had certainly taken long enough. All of his friends had mostly stopped the fussing and overprotectiveness, thank Thor, and had regained their usual rebellious and annoying attitudes.

Just the way he liked it.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Snotlout yelled. "Are you going to stand there bossing us around all day, or are you actually going to join in?" He executed a perfect turn and yelled, "Snotlout! Snotlout! OY, OY, OY!"

"Oh-ho, just you wait, Snotlout! Before you know it, Toothless and I will be kicking your butt again!"

"Oh yeah? Wanna bet?"

Heather swooped in. "Oh, I'll take that bet," she grinned. She had returned from her trip successfully two days ago, Windshear in tow.

Hiccup's smile took over his whole face. It was hard to still be worried when his team was in such good shape. It was hard to imagine Dagur or anyone else standing up to them.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Yay! Told you Astrid wasn't finished. :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Whew! This is a long one. Honestly, I didn't mean for it to be so long, but it just kinda kept going. I started writing this story mainly for all the emotional stuff, but I actually really enjoy** **writing the action too. :)**

 **I'm going on a trip out-of-town tomorrow, and I'll be gone until Monday. I'll bring my laptop, but I'm not sure if I'll have access to wifi, so if I don't update till Monday, that's why. Sorry, to those of you who have been bugging me to update. :( But even if I don't have wifi, I'll keep working on it, so don't worry. ;D**

* * *

Astrid's POV

Darkness had fallen over the ship. Silence and stillness followed.

Taking a deep breath, Astrid rose and moved as quietly as she could to the door. _Let's try this again,_ she thought. Ignoring the way her hand trembled ever so slightly, she stuck her arm through the bars and twisted in that awkward way so that the bone entered the lock. She jimmied the bone around for a bit, quickly growing frustrated. _It worked before; why isn't it –_

The door swung open. She had been leaning against it, so she stumbled a bit. When she had regained her balance, she glanced around to be sure that her escape had gone unnoticed. Other than the creaking and swaying of the ship, silence permeated the halls.

She began moving, torn between her desire to run and the need to stay silent. Even though Toothless was pitch black and could move surprisingly stealthily, it was a little easier to sneak around _without_ an enormous dragon. She decided that she would find the tailfin, then release Toothless so they could make their escape together.

Some hidden, coldly analytical part of her observed that it would be easier to just release one of the other dragons, one that was able to fly on its own, and then escape with it. But the thought was so out of the question, so absolutely irrelevant, that even that coldly analytical part of her had rejected the thought before it was fully formed.

Thankfully, her journey to the chief's room she had spotted earlier passed without incident. Her unerring sense of direction helped her to find a route avoiding that old man's cage. She reached out and tentatively twisted the handle, inching the door open as slowly as possible.

Suddenly it gave a loud creak, and her heart went into overdrive. She froze, barely daring to breathe. The silence continued on unbroken, and she relaxed, realizing that the creak must have blended in with the other noises natural to the ship. After the door was cracked open enough, she slid through, and immediately set to work looking for the tailfin.

It wasn't hard to find. It was leaning on the wall behind a desk. Obviously, Dagur had thought that everyone on board who would want it was locked up. She snatched it and tucked it under her arm. Her eyes glittered when she spotted an axe on the wall. She hefted it experimentally. Not as nice as her own axe, but it still felt like being reunited with an old friend.

Then the sound of approaching footsteps reached Astrid's ears. She looked around wildly for a hiding place as they grew near, then jumped nimbly up onto a window sill and pulled the thick curtains closed, effectively concealing her.

Then the person entered the room, and this time, Astrid really didn't dare to breathe. Whoever it was stomped around, rustling things and mumbling to himself. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but it didn't sound like Dagur. After a few moments, the person paused. She couldn't see through the curtains, but her heart was pounding so hard, she would have sworn that the sound of it had alerted them to her presence. The silence drew on and on until Astrid was sweating. Then the stomping resumed, and moments later the door closed and the person was gone.

She peeled the curtains back, but remained on the windowsill in case they decided to return. For several minutes she squatted there, her nerves jangling, her ears straining for any other disturbances. Which is why she jumped when a screech echoed down the whole of the ship.

It sounded like… Toothless.

She leaped down from her spot and dashed to the door. Cracking it open the smallest bit, she peered through the inch of open space to survey the hall for Berserkers. It was deserted. For a second, she considered taking the time to inch the door open like she had done before, but she threw her previous caution to the wind and swung it open in one sure movement.

As she dashed down the hall, she made a mental note that sometimes doors were more quiet when you threw them open than when you inched them open with painstaking caution. Or maybe it was just that particular door.

Since Astrid now knew her way around the ship pretty well, it only took her a couple of minutes to reach Toothless' cage. Creeping down the hallway, shrouded by the darkness, she saw by the torchlight flickering inside the night fury's cage that there were three figures standing above the dragon and three standing guard outside. She flattened herself against a wall to listen.

Dagur's maniacal laughter was the first sound to reach her, then it was nearly overpowered by Toothless' roar. "Ha-HA! Guess your little plasma blasts don't work so well after a bucket of water is dumped over your head, huh?" The night fury crouched low and growled, and the two other silhouettes in the cell pointed their spears at it threateningly.

"I just love the idea of taming a night fury at night! Ah, poetic justice! Take the fury, make it mine, and we will rule the night! Now, dragon, bow before me!"

Toothless remained exactly where he was. In fact, his snarl of defiance seemed to raise him higher from the ground.

There was a smacking sound and a yelp. Astrid turned away from the sight, breathing heavily. She had to do something. Right now, she had to do something. But what? It had to be something big enough to distract Dagur and the Berserkers, so she could rescue Toothless, and they could get away. As she stared into the darkness in front of her, there was a squawking sound from the cage across the hall.

 _That's it!_

She was at the other cage's door in the blink of an eye, whipping out the bone and working at the lock. She saw the deadly nadder inside stand up and come over to sniff at her. "Hey, there," she whispered. "I'm going to free you, okay?" The nadder tilted its head to the side and examined her. Then the door opened, and Astrid stepped back to allow it out. It stood there for a second, nostrils flapping, then it hopped out into the hall. "Good." Astrid nodded, satisfied, then dashed over to the next cage.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

That night, they set out to attack the Berserker fleet. Hiccup rode Stormfly at the head of the pack, and even though glancing pains ricocheted through his stomach every once in a while, he couldn't help his heart speeding up as he thought about seeing Astrid and Toothless again. He had missed them, both of them, really, really missed them. He remembered the time after his fight with the Red Death when he was recovering from the loss of his leg, Toothless had helped him out and stayed by his side the entire time. This recuperation period had been harder without his dragon's constant presence. He was also terrified that Dagur had been hurting them or making good on his promise to conquer Toothless.

When the Berserker armada came into sight, a strange peace settled over him. He knew that no matter what was about to happen, at the end of the day, either he or Dagur would have won the war – not just the battle, but the entire war.

* * *

Astrid's POV

This cage contained a zippelback. Astrid made quick work of the lock, then moved on to the next, which had two gronckles. The dragons she had released were standing about nervously in the darkness, keeping a wary eye on the flickering light and the loud noises coming from the cell at the far end of the hall.

Astrid continued on, sometimes switching and releasing the dragons on the opposite side of the hall. She was caught up in the thrill and adrenaline of the moment, and a grin spread over her face as she imagined Hiccup's expression if he had been there freeing dragons with her.

And then she just got so tired. Just so exhausted. Her arms felt like they were made of lead for all the effort it took to lift them, and the option of lying down and giving up suddenly seemed very appealing.

But Astrid was a fighter. She always had been, and she always would be.

 _I. Am. A Viking. I can do this._

As she released a monstrous nightmare, a crash resounded through the ship. Startled, she glanced over to see a Berserker standing with his mouth wide open at the mess of dragons in the hall, a still rattling pile of trays at his feet. She ducked into the now empty cage to avoid detection and watched as the Berserker opened his mouth and _howled_.

Chaos erupted.

Dragons were roaring and screeching and firing randomly, frantically stampeding to get out of the ship, while a flood of still bleary Berserkers came pouring in, yelling and swinging weapons. A mad scream of rage drew Astrid's attention to Dagur, who was clearly so furious at the mass escape that he could barely think straight as he dove headfirst into the havoc.

HA.

It was surprisingly simple to duck and weave through the mob to get to Toothless' cage without detection. Dagur had even left the cage door open in his rage, so she didn't have to bother with picking the lock.

"Come on, Toothless! Let's go!" She grabbed his saddle and pulled the dragon towards the door. He came with her willingly enough, but not as enthusiastically as she would have liked. They fled down the hall away from the fight, which was doing a stellar job at distracting any Berserkers who might have otherwise noticed their flight.

And then – a loud noise, a bone-breaking impact. There was an enormous explosion which knocked them both off their feet. As Astrid slowly picked herself up off the ground, there was a ringing noise in her ears, and her wrist ached in such a familiar way that Astrid immediately recognized that it was sprained – badly. In a daze, she looked around for Toothless. The black dragon seemed unhurt, and it ran over to her, cooing worriedly. The world suddenly tilted under her, and she thought that she was going to pass out until she realized that it was the ship.

Then she looked back towards the explosion. Her eyes widened.

A hole had been ripped in floor. Water was pouring – flooding – in. The ship was beginning to tilt violently under the weight of the water. Dragons and Berserkers alike were scrambling wildly to get out.

"ABANDON SHIIIPPPPPPP!"

Astrid turned and began scrabbling against the unsteady wooden floors to get back on her feet. Already, it was beginning to feel damp. Toothless gave her his head for support, then motioned for her to get on his back. She clambered onto the saddle, not even caring how graceless the movement was without the use of her sprained wrist. The dragon began bounding down the hall.

Soon they were swallowed up in the mass exodus. It was a flood of humans and dragons rushing towards the stairs leading above decks, where the dragons could fly away and the humans could transfer to other ships in the fleet.

They finally burst through the doors and into the fresh air. Everything on deck was chaos as well. Several dragons had already set fire to numerous very important parts of the ship. "Come on, Toothless, let's get out of here!" she cried, real hope thrumming through her. They had made it out!

The night fury leaped in the air, and for a second she could actually taste freedom. Then the dragon let out a screech and flapped wildly, out of balance, and they came crashing back to the deck of the ship. She gasped in horror and realization.

The tailfin! The tailfin? Where was the tailfin?!

Her hazy and panicked mind somehow managed to sort through her memories, revealing that she had dropped it in the explosion and hadn't grabbed it again in her haste to get out of the sinking ship. She twisted in her seat to look back at the entrance to below-decks. Water was already welling up the stairs, seeping ever higher.

She dropped off Toothless' back. She was just going to have to do a little swimming.

Her determined dash to the underwater hallways was cut off, however, as just at that moment, Dagur, who had somehow managed to get safely onboard another ship already, spotted the pair. "Take them down!" He screeched.

Arrows dipped in dragon root and bolas were launched at the blond Viking and the night fury. A large black wing shielded Astrid from the projectiles, but Toothless only narrowly avoided a net which spiraled towards him.

They needed that tailfin. But swimming to get it would be hard enough on its own. This was impossible – there was no way they would be able to retrieve it, then attach it and fly off without being captured by the Berserkers. So Astrid made a decision.

"We're going overboard, Toothless!"

And together, they dove off the ship and into the water.

* * *

 **Author's Second Note: Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! It's all coming together! Mwahhahahaha *rubs hands together***


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Yay, for free wifi at hotels!**

 **Alright, drum roll please...**

 **This is the chapter y'all been waiting for! Eeee! I originally intended for this to be two chapters, but I took pity on you guys so, enjoy!**

* * *

Astrid's POV

The sky was just beginning to lighten at the edge of the horizon. Morning was coming.

Astrid and Toothless surfaced from their dive and and began treading water, trying to remain silent, hidden among the burning wreckage of the ship. The darkness of the night helped too, but that wouldn't last long.

Astrid found herself looking up at the stars in amazement after so long trapped in that musty, dark ship. She probably would have enjoyed the fresh air too, but the smoke from the fires still burning clogged the atmosphere. The water was cold, but it wasn't freezing. It was the middle of the summer, after all.

She busied herself with staring at the stars, trying to get a good idea of their position, so they could head for land. It was difficult to concentrate, though, especially with the cacophony the Berserkers were making in their search for the two fugitives. Most of the dragons flew off, although she saw a few caught in the nets of the Vikings, but it seemed like all the Berserkers had managed to make it safely aboard other vessels. She felt ill thinking about the two cages with dragons she hadn't managed to free before the ship sunk. She doubted that anyone else had bothered to free them. Which made it all the worse as she watched someone hauling that shriveled, twisted old man out of the water to safety aboard one of the other Berserker ships.

Dagur's screeches had been piercing the air for quite a while now. She had mostly tuned them out, but she still noticed when they suddenly stopped. She gripped Toothless' saddle, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. The sun's rays suddenly made an appearance far away on the horizon, turning the rest of the sky a lighter blue. Then she heard the insane Berserker chief's voice again, although this time he sounded considerably calmer and more reasonable.

"Astrid, I know you're out there. You and my night fury. You should really just turn yourselves in now. We're nowhere near land – trying to swim is no use! You'll just drown. I am your only hope of survival."

He could be lying. But then again, he could be telling the truth. It was about a fifty-fifty chance, either way.

Was that a chance she was willing to take? She remembered her resolve: escape or die trying.

She tilted her head back up to look at the sky, desperately trying to see any remaining stars, but it was slowly transitioning to daytime blue, and the stars had faded. But then something else caught her eye.

It was the approach of an enormous flock of dragons. She could only just barely see their silhouettes against the rising sun, but they were of all shapes and sizes, flying together in their direction. She gasped.

"Toothless! They're here! They're finally here for us!"

The night fury turned to look at the approaching figures. He looked back at Astrid and whined, as if telling her that it was probably just a random flock of migrating dragons. But a smile was slowly spreading across her face.

"Toothless, random flocks of dragons don't fly in battle formation."

A plan immediately began forming in her brain.

"Okay, here's what we need to do. We need to distract Dagur and the Berserkers so that they won't see the riders coming. That way, they'll have the element of surprise." She took a deep breath.

"DAGUR! We're over here!" Her yell caught the Berserker chief's attention immediately, and he began jumping and screeching while pointing in their direction. A net was launched which enveloped the two, and they were swept underwater as it was pulled back in to the boat. When they were finally yanked into the air and slowly dragged up the ship's side, Astrid sucked in an enormous breath of air, gasping and heaving. Her hair dripped into her eyes as she looked at Toothless, and whispered, "When they get us up on deck, make as much noise and create as much chaos as you can. We have to keep them focused on us!"

"I knew you would see sense!" Dagur called down to them. "I mean, trying to escape with a dragon that can't fly?" He doubled over with laughter.

Then the net flopped over the side of the boat, and they landed on the deck with a wet, squishy, plop. Before anyone could blink, Astrid had cut through the ropes with her axe, and she and Toothless let loose on the Berserkers.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

From where he perched on Stormfly, Hiccup directed the assault against the Berserker fleet.

Oddly enough, one of their ships was already sinking when they arrived, and absolute chaos seemed to be taking place on the ships still afloat. He squinted hard to try and see what was happening, but they were still too far away. Whatever it was, it was very helpful because the Berserkers _still_ hadn't spotted their approach.

He made the hand signal for the first attack.

Nothing seemed to happen, but he watched with a grin as a thin ripple in the water led from where they were positioned to the ships of the armada. Then Scauldy burst from the surface in a massive explosion of water right next to the ships. The scauldron's enormous mouth opened wide, revealing Ruffnut standing safely inside, howling the Hooligan war cry. She grabbed the side of Scauldy's head and swung around to position herself on his back, then they bent down and sucked up an enormous mouthful of water which they used to bombard the ships.

That had been Ruffnut's idea.

Then, Fishlegs and Snotlout, who had secretly circled around to the other side of the fleet, began bombarding the Berserker ships from the other side at the same time that Tuffnut (who was riding Barf and Belch with the help of Bucket) came flapping in, chased by what appeared to be an enormous fog bank. The smothering smokebreaths set upon the fleet with enthusiasm.

Hiccup was now close enough to see what was happening on the decks of Dagur's ship. He was starting to rally his Vikings, retaliating to the attack.

And – Astrid and Toothless! They were being pinned to the deck and dragged below and out of sight.

"Snotlout!" Hiccup yelled. "I need you to get over here and cover me! Bring some other riders, Astrid and Toothless are one this ship!"

"I gotcha, princess!"

Hiccup was too agitated to retort or even care about Snotlout's friendly-ish barb.

Snotlout and three other riders swooped down on the deck, blasting left and right, clearing a path for Hiccup and Stormfly, and they landed gently on the ship. Stormfly took off ahead of Hiccup, clearly excited about seeing her rider again. Hiccup followed as quickly as he could, knowing that he had probably torn a stitch or two, yet unable to bring himself to care.

He was finally going to see Astrid and Toothless again.

* * *

Astrid's POV

Astrid was dragged down to a new cage. She noted with satisfaction that the bars of this one were simple metal, definitely not dragon proof. Toothless was pulled further down the hall, out of sight. She could hear the sounds of fighting clearly from where she was, but she didn't know what was going on or who was winning, and it was driving her crazy. Then she heard the sound of a dragon roaring and Snotlout shouting, "Snotlout! Snotlout! Oy, oy, oy!" and she could have burst into tears.

She stood at the door and gripped the bars, waiting impatiently for someone to find her and free her. Then she saw Stormfly come bounding down the hallway and she cried out in relief that her dragon was fine. Stormfly was able to burn down the iron door of her cell (courtesy of the deadly nadder being the hottest recorded dragon), and she rushed out to wrap her beautiful dragon in a hug.

That was when she heard his voice.

"Astrid?"

She stiffened. She heard that voice all the time in her head. She had memorized that voice. She loved that voice.

"Astrid? Astrid, are you okay?"

She spun around.

It was Hiccup. He was walking down the hall towards her, staggering a little and grabbing his middle, but it was Hiccup.

It was Hiccup.

He was alive.

She ran to him and pulled him into a hug, crying and laughing at the same time. He started laughing too.

"You're alive? You're really alive? Oh my gods, Hiccup, oh Thor, you're alive!"

"Yes, yes, but are you okay? Are you okay – Astrid? Are you _crying_?"

She pulled back a little, just a little, and reached up, putting her hands on either side of his face, feeling every little thing, drinking in his existence. He looked down at her and –

Oh, Thor, he kissed her.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

Thank goodness she kissed him back, because for a second there it seemed she wouldn't, and that would have been very awkward. But when he pulled away, she shook her head violently and pulled him back towards her. For a few moments, they stayed there like that, forehead to forehead, as tears streamed down her cheeks. Then, still without moving away, she opened her eyes and said, "Oh, gods, Hiccup, I thought you were _dead._ "

"I'm so sorry we left you here so long, it took me a while to heal – "

"No, you don't understand, I thought you were _DEAD,_ Hiccup, _DEAD_. I thought I would never see you again, and I didn't… I couldn't…" Her voice broke, and for the first time Hiccup really pulled back to get a good look at her. Her eyes were puffy and red and her voice, which he hadn't really processed before, was husky and raw as if she had been…

And then Hiccup remembered that sound which had woken him up that morning almost a month ago, when the other riders had thought he was dead and saw him on Berk. They had all been crying. Real, heartbroken, sobs.

"Astrid, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And this time _his_ voice broke. He closed his eyes.

And then he whispered, "I love you." The silence drew on for so long, he had to peek. She was crying silently, and then she was hugging him so hard that his stomach screamed and he winced.

Immediately, she loosened her hold and asked, "Are you alright? What's wrong? Are you okay? Hiccup?"

He squeezed her a little for reassurance and said, "I'm fine, just not totally, one-hundred percent healed yet."

She nodded, then slowly said, "I love you, too. I didn't realize it until – Toothless." Suddenly her tone changed and became urgent and worried. "Hiccup, we need to show Toothless you're alive."

Terror gripped him. He didn't realize he had strengthened his hold on her, until she forcefully loosened it a little, and began helping him down the hall.

"What happened? Is Toothless alright?" He asked breathlessly.

"He's alive," she answered. "Stormfly, go open Toothless' cage. Hiccup, Toothless stopped eating when he thought you were dead."

Hiccup screwed his eyes shut. He knew Toothless didn't have any other family, his dragon must have thought he was all alone again. "Oh no, bud," he whispered.

"I got him to eat again, but he's… grieving."

Pain flashed through Hiccup. Pain and guilt – how could he have left his friends in Dagur's clutches so long? Then he saw the bright flash of Stormfly's fire burning through the bars on one of the cages, and a dark shape huddled within – was that Toothless?

"Bud! Toothless? Hey, bud, it's me!"

A dark head raised from the huddle on the floor. Hiccup started walking even faster, ignoring the pain in his side.

"I'm here! I'm okay! Hey, bud, is that you?"

The shape rose entirely from the ground and stood frozen, staring in his direction. Hiccup couldn't help it. He broke away from Astrid and started running.

"Toothless!"

The dark shape began bounding towards him, and as it flew out of the dark room, Hiccup could clearly see that it was his night fury, a little thin and haggard, but the same old friend. Toothless made a little sound of pure and unadulterated joy right before they crashed into each other.

Hiccup ended up lying on the ground on his back, staring up at Toothless above him. Toothless licked him once, wildly happy, then sat back and stared at him with an indecipherable expression. He took a big breath of air, then nodded towards Hiccup with an expression that was simultaneously fearful, joyous, and expectant.

"Come again, bud?"

Toothless took another big breath of air and then seemed to gesture at Hiccup with his head as if saying, "Now you do it." So Hiccup took a big breath of air, in and out, then smiled at Toothless.

"Is that what you wanted?"

And then Toothless was all over him, licking and nuzzling.

When Hiccup finally managed to sit up, he wrapped his arms around Toothless in an enormous embrace. The dragon laid his head down in Hiccup's lap, and stared up at him with big adoring eyes for a moment. Then his breathing slowly started to get faster and more erratic, until he was gulping in big breaths of air, his whole body shaking.

Alarmed, Hiccup laid his head down on top of Toothless' head, scratching behind the neck as he did so, reassuring, "Hey, hey, it's okay, bud, I'm here now."

Astrid, who had been watching the love fest with a huge smile, simply drinking in the fact that Hiccup was here, alive, walked over and sat beside him, threading her hand through his free one and leaning against him.

They stayed there like that for a while, with Stormfly prancing in circles around them, until Toothless was still and calm again.

* * *

Toothless' POV

His human was here. His human was alive.

Toothless reveled in the simple feeling of Hiccup's hand scratching his neck, the light pressure of his head resting on Toothless' head, the sound of his voice. A flood of emotions was overwhelming the dragon, so much that he couldn't breathe.

But Hiccup could breathe. His human was still breathing, and Toothless could show him how sorry he was for leaving him. He would never ever leave his human again. This thought, along with Hiccup's actual presence slowly calmed him until he was perfectly content to just sit there like that forever, just him and his human and apparently the blond girl who wanted to mate his human. Her eyes were still leaking, but she didn't seem to be sad anymore. Sometimes it was so hard to understand humans.

And then the sound of that deranged human's voice cut through this moment of happiness.

"This can't be happening! GaaaaaaaAAAAAH!"

The group huddled together on the floor twisted to look at Dagur. The crazy man's mouth fell open as he saw Hiccup sitting there with them, alive and well. He made a squawking noise.

Toothless rose up and spread his wings like an enormous shield in front of Hiccup as he turned to face the human who would had hurt Hiccup. The blond girl, too, jumped up and moved in front of his human.

Hiccup twisted and tried to stand, but he fell back to the ground with a cry of pain. A dart of fear shot through the dragon. What was wrong with Hiccup? Hadn't he said he was alright?

So he fully faced the man named Dagur and roared as loud as he could.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry for taking so long to update!**

 **See, I had this last battle planned out in my mind before I started writing the story. But when I had it all written out, I realized there was a huge plot hole in that ending. So I had to scrap it and write a new one. But once that one was written, I realized that I just really hated that ending. So I had to come up with _another_ ending! And my brain just kind of hit a blank, and I couldn't think of another way to do this battle, and I realized that I just needed to take a break from obsessing about it and let my brain stew on it for a while. I'm the type of person who needs to know exactly what's going to happen before they write or else the words just won't come. And I'm sorry, if it seems anticlimactic or whatever; just know that I originally had a much more brilliant ending planned (well, brilliant unless you count the plot hole - which I do, soo...)**

 **It also really didn't help that my AP World History teacher decided to make us write five essays. Yay.**

* * *

Snotlout's POV

Snotlout was having an amazing time. This battle was awesome! Everyone was on fire and running away, and obviously he and and Hookfang were the heroes of the day. Obviously. Unfortunately, some of the Berserkers were rallying; they had shot Scauldy with an arrow dipped in dragon root, so Ruffnut's scauldron had gone down with a splash. Snotlout rescued Ruffnut, like the shamelessly awesome hero that he was. Sure, she had gotten a little wet and then a little burned in the process – but she was totally _fine,_ thanks to Snotlout!

That was when he heard the sound of Toothless roaring. He had forgotten just how bone-rattlingly terrifying it was when Toothless really put effort into his roar. Everyone knew that Toothless was like a big giant puppy, especially when it came to Hiccup. Nothing like Hookfang, who was terrifying and mean _all_ the time. But when Toothless really got into the spirit of it, he had to hand it to him, even _Snotlout_ felt like running away.

So it came as no especial surprise when Dagur came running out from below deck, shrieking like a little baby. Snotlout cackled appreciatively as Barf and Belch swooped down and snagged the Berserker chief like one of Sven's sheep in a dragon race. Tuffnut was yelling something, but it was too far away for Snotlout to hear. Snotlout wasn't all that concerned since it was probably something incredibly moronic anyway.

Then Barf and Belch started flapping wildly and spinning out of control. The zippelback plunged out of the sky on a direct course towards one of the Berserker ships. They slammed into the deck with an enormous crash, which rocked the ship back and forth violently. Dagur leaped up triumphantly, only to stagger, his balance hindered by the turbulence of the ship, and topple unceremoniously to the deck.

Snotlout was pretty far away, and even though Hookfang was the fiercest and most dangerous dragon ever, they wouldn't be able to make it in time to rescue Tuffnut and Bucket. Before the Viking had time to freak out, Fishlegs and Meatlug flapped in and scooped the two riders up and they soared away, yelling something inaudible.

When Snotlout caught up with them, he yelled, "You know, you didn't have to do that, Fishface! I totally would have got there in time!"

Fishlegs' retort was interrupted by Tuffnut's wailing, "NOOO! Our dragon!"

Fishlegs leaned over to peer down at Tuffnut and Bucket, dangling helplessly from Meatlug's claws. "What happened? Why did Barf and Belch crash like that?"

"Dagur poked our dragon with his arrow and sent it to sleep!" There was a pause. "It was actually kinda awesome."

"Brother, I would wholeheartedly concur, were it not for the fact that said Berserker has our dragon!" Ruffnut yelled from her position behind Snotlout on Hookfang. "I blame you Bucket! You don't understand Barf like I do."

Bucket looked rather shocked and saddened at this accusation. Fishlegs opened his mouth, probably to make some boorrrring comment about responsibility and priorities, but they were all saved from the yawn-fest by the sudden (explosive) appearance of Hiccup riding Toothless, accompanied by Astrid on Stormfly.

* * *

Astrid's POV

As satisfying as it was to see Dagur turn tail and run, screeching at such a high pitch only the dragons should have been able to hear him, Astrid couldn't chase after him. There was no way she was leaving Hiccup's side, not for a single second, not for anything.

He was here. He was alive.

He was also looking at her like she was insane.

"What are you doing? This is the perfect opportunity; go after him!"

She threw her axe in the air, and as it twirled around and slammed into the wooden floor, she put her good hand on her hip and grinned at him. She probably _was_ insane. "No."

He seemed to get it, though. He smiled back, then began rummaging through the satchel slung over his shoulder.

"Annddd… here we go!" He lifted out something wrapped in canvas and showed it to Toothless. "I brought you a spare tailfin, bud, just in case."

As he put on the tailfin, Hiccup glanced over his shoulder at Astrid, who was giving Stormfly some love. She reached up to scratch her nadder with her left hand, then immediately regretted it.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup stopped what he was doing and twisted around to see why she had gasped in pain.

"Oh, I'm fine. Just sprained my stupid wrist earlier." She saw his expression and scowled. "No, Hiccup, there's no way I'm sitting out of the fight. I fought all those Berserkers on deck earlier with one hand, and I was fine!"

He sighed, stifling his argument, and turned around to finish fastening on Toothless' prosthetic.

Each of the two riders mounted their dragons, and they rocketed down the hall. Toothless fired a plasma blast which widened the entrance so they could safely fly out into the open air.

They emerged into chaos. The Berserkers had managed to regroup and organize their defense, and Astrid saw Hiccup wincing and gripping Toothless tightly as they executed evasive maneuvers to avoid the barrage of arrows and bolas. She made a mental note to ask him about that later.

When they were out of range, high above the fight, she evaluated the situation. The riders had surprised the Berserkers and made use of some… unusual tactics. Was that a scauldron draped over the side of one of the ships? And some of the Berserkers seemed to be missing a great deal of armor and weapons. Odd. She made another mental note.

However, the Berserkers had the advantage of sheer numbers. They were starting to push back. The Berkians were still winning, but it was on the edge right now, and it could probably go either way.

"We need something else, an extra punch, to push the battle to our side," she voiced her conclusion.

"We need to capture Dagur," Hiccup stated. Toothless growled deeply, and Hiccup rubbed his head reassuringly. Astrid was out of reach, though, so Hiccup was unable to calm her growl the same way.

"Okay, here's what we'll do," Hiccup pronounced. "Someone can provide a distraction for Dagur while someone else sneaks up behind and scoops him up and away."

"And who exactly are you thinking of as the distraction?"

Just then, Heather swooped in beside them, riding Windshear with admittedly impressive flair. "I'll be the distraction."

Astrid grinned. "Heather!"

Hiccup laughed, rubbing Toothless' head affectionately. Although he seemed to be doing it subconsciously, it looked a little like he was reassuring himself that the dragon was really there. Toothless was making no effort to disguise his pure bliss, and Astrid would use her axe to chop off the tongue of anyone who foolishly accused her of feeling jealous. "Perfect!" Hiccup exclaimed. "And Fishlegs can be the swooping capturer. Meatlug will be able to drop straight in from above, grab Dagur, and fly away before anyone sees them coming."

They wasted no time informing the other dragon riders of the plan and getting into position. Astrid informed Hiccup in no uncertain terms that he was to stay far above the fight and out of danger with her. To her relief, he seemed only minimally reluctant to agree and was only a little surprised when she opted to stay with him instead of joining in the battle. They observed from above as their plan was put into action.

It was impossible to hear what was said from their altitude, but Astrid still tried to read Heather's lips as she attempted to engage her brother's attention. She discovered that reading lips was not a talent she was naturally blessed with. Despite this, it was clear from the beginning that things were not going as planned. Dagur seemed to be giving hardly any of his attention to his sister, instead glancing around wildly, practically spinning in circles.

It was like he was looking for something…

* * *

Hiccup's POV

It was immediately obvious that Heather wouldn't be a good enough distraction. Hiccup had been banking on the fact that she was Dagur's sister. Heather had told him a little bit about what had happened between the two of them.

 _"He freed me. I don't know what Viggo was planning on doing, but he gave me a bad, bad feeling with that game he was obsessed with. And then Dagur… he just took out all the guards and told me to go."_

 _Hiccup tried to make eye contact with the dark-haired girl, but she refused to look at him, studying the patterns on the table instead._

 _"He's your brother."_

 _There was silence for a second._

 _"He's the only family I have left."_

 _Hiccup took a deep breath. He was furious with Dagur; there was no point denying it, and no need to point out why. But…_

 _"You don't want him to die."_

 _It wasn't a question. Heather never responded to it. Yet Hiccup found that saying it out loud made him realize something. He hadn't really considered it yet – what he would do with Dagur after he had defeated him. He deserved punishment obviously, but…_

Hiccup stared at the battle, playing in his mind the conversation he had held with Heather weeks ago. He had relied on her influence with her brother to distract him during this crucial operation, but… it wasn't working.

Dagur was looking for Hiccup. That was fairly obvious to the dragon rider. He felt a sinking sensation as he realized that Dagur would spot Fishlegs and Meatlug a mile away with the frantic way he was searching for his old enemy, seemingly back from the dead.

There was only one thing to do.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Hey! Sorry this one took so long. I haven't had a lot of time to write lately. :(**

 **So, I noticed that some authors do shout outs to people who posted reviews, and I thought I would try it for the reviews posted for the last chapter. If you like it, let me know! Thanks!**

 **training to be a fangirl: When I read your review, all I could think was, "Oh my gosh, I made someone scream?" I'm really, really happy that you like it. :D I've discovered that I actually really enjoy writing from Snotlout's POV. I have a sneaking liking for those really cold, mean characters that you just know, deep, deep, deep, _deep_ down are good people. I'm not entirely certain how many chapters will be left. I meant for this chapter and the next one (chapters 14 and 15) to be one chapter, but it was just getting too long, so I separated them. Don't worry, the next one is already written, and I'm posting it right after I post this one. After that, I plan on having a chapter discussing the aftermath of it all (it will mostly be everyone being happy together). I have a lot of ideas for that chapter. :) Barring anything else unforeseen, that should be it.**

 **Crystallion12: Hahahaha, you actually made me laugh with that comment. Hiccup isn't going to be too stupid here, but of course something is going to happen. Smh. I have a little more to say about this, but I'll post that at the end of chapter 15.**

 **MaximumRide159: Thanks for waiting! I'm sorry for the cliffhanger. I just needed a place to end the chapter, and cliffhangers are surprisingly easy to write. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯**

 **VenomousFantum: Uhhhh... *starts sweating nervously* I'm so sorry this chapter took so long! I wrote this whole chapter and the next one together, but it was really long so I split it in half. So, the next chapter should come out in two minutes! :D Yay!**

 **SilverGhostWolf: Awwwww, thanks so much! I really appreciate it. :) Yeah, I wanted a story like this, but couldn't really find one, so I decided to write it myself. It's taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I'm really glad that you thought the characters were true to their personalities. I watch so much HTTYD, it'd be more weird if I _didn't_ understand their personalities. :D**

 **Animals Rule: Thanks for the review! Don't worry, I will definitely complete this story. I pinky-swear. :) I am totally, one-hundred percent against animal cruelty, and I would totally post the dog and the cat on my bio (which is really very empty right now), but there's something wrong with the way they're pictured on my computer. It could just be my computer, but the image doesn't show up at all. Just know that the dog and the cat are on my bio in spirit. :D**

 **Thank you guys so much! Let me know if you like the shoutouts, and I'll do them again for chapter 16! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Astrid's POV

"Toothless, take me lower."

Astrid heard Hiccup's command a moment before the pair dove down towards the fray. That moron! That irredeemably muttonheaded moron! He was barely recovered from a grave injury, why was he diving towards the battle? Oh gods above, he was going to get himself killed! AGAIN!

The blond Viking directed her deadly nadder to follow the night fury and his rider. They swooped into the chaos of the still raging battle, directly into Dagur's line of sight.

"Well, hello, Dagur! How's life treating you?" Hiccup called.

When Dagur saw him, his eyes popped. "You know, I'm pretty sure I killed you. Like, one hundred and twenty-four percent certain. Although, that number is dropping by the second."

Toothless whirled suddenly, and the two barely dodged a sudden onslaught of projectiles.

"You know," Hiccup yelled in a strained voice, "this conversation would be a little easier if you would tell your men to hold off for a bit!"

"My LIFE would be easier if you would just hold off a bit, Hiccup! How are you alive? I mean, honestly, oh brother mine, I don't understand it!"

Heather looked a little shocked by Hiccup's sudden appearance, but Dagur's attention was now completely occupied with Hiccup. Astrid wanted to tell Hiccup exactly how she felt about his actions, but she held it in. It would have to wait until after all this was over. She was very much looking forward to when all this was over.

"Your life would be easier if _I_ held off? Dagur, you're the one who attacked Dragon's Edge and tried to kill me!"

Ruffnut and Tuffnut passed by on their zippelback, which they had spent the past five minutes rescuing. Ruffnut leaned out into the air, holding Barf's horn with one hand and cupping her mouth with the other as she called out, "Please notice the emphasis placed on ' _tried',_ Dagur!"

Dagur clenched his fist and waved it wildly at the twins, who were cackling and head-butting as they flew away. "Get them!"

At this moment, three things happened at once.

The first was that Fishlegs and Meatlug dropped in from the sky, straight down, and jerked to a halt right above Dagur. Before anyone, including Astrid, had the time to register their arrival, Meatlug had snatched up the Berserker chief, and they began shooting straight back up in the sky, aiming to get out of range as quickly as possible.

The second was that Tuffnut and Ruffnut, aboard Barf and Belch, hit by one of the abundant Berserker weapons, came plowing through the other soldiers on board the ship, haphazardly setting off explosions as they went. Snotlout and Heather needed no encouragement to join in, and the three dragons combined incapacitated every hostile Viking on board Dagur's ship in about five seconds.

The third was that a bola launched from another ship hit Hiccup in the back at the precise moment that he was distracted by Dagur's capture. He was hurled off Toothless' back and hit the deck of the ship on the exact spot where Dagur had stood a mere split-second before. Toothless, roaring in panic and anger, fell into the water beside the ship with an enormous splash.

There was no time to think. Astrid, who had been trying to stay as close as she could to Hiccup and Toothless in the chaos of the battle, immediately shot after him as he fell. Dodging a bola which whizzed by her head, she directed her dragon after Hiccup. She felt a bump as Stormfly's feet whacked the side of the ship due to the nearly horizontal angle of their approach, and the two tumbled head over heels, sliding painfully across the deck.

She lifted her head, yelling, "Hiccup!"

To her intense relief, the answer came immediately, "Astrid, I'm fine, Astrid. Okay. Uhh…"

As she scrambled to her knees, she surveyed the ship with disbelief and rising pride. Every single Berserker was lying on the wooden deck, groaning, and Hiccup was sitting up and shrugging off the bola which wrapped around his chest and arms.

"Toothless?" Hiccup yelled, looking about worriedly. If there was a response, it was impossible to hear amid the yells and explosions which punctuated the battles still taking place on other ships.

"STOP! We have your leader!" Fishlegs yelled, as loudly as he possibly could, from his spot high in the air, dangling a shrieking Dagur above the battle. The Vikings who heard him paused and stared in bewilderment and horror at their leader hanging in the air. "PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!" Fishlegs continued to yell. His voice was rising in pitch as he tried to get louder, and it ended up sounding like very shrill squeaking.

Dagur struggled in the gronckle's grasp, wriggling about like a worm and trying to poke his spear into the dragon's thick hide. It was useless, though, Astrid recalled with a grin, as gronckles were immune to dragon root.

"What? How is this happening? GaaaaAAAAHHHHH!" He yelled. "If I'm going down, SO ARE YOU, HICCUP!" And before anyone could prevent it, he threw his spear down at Hiccup.

Astrid felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. When she looked back on this moment, she could never fully recall what it was like for her. Whether time froze or sped up or her heart stopped or pounded through her chest – she could never remember. What she would never forget however, was the incredible sight of a night fury appearing in an enormous explosion of water.


	15. Chapter 15

Toothless' POV

When his human was hit by the flying rope and rocks, Toothless had fallen into the water. Most of the time, Toothless didn't mind that he needed his human to fly – they were meant to fly together. They were absolutely undefeatable when they were together. But when they were apart, they _both_ plummeted to the ground. Or, to the ocean as it happened.

The water was wet and cold and smothering. Toothless didn't really like swimming all that much. It killed his fire. Plus, the dragon knew that he was built for the skies – his wings weren't very much help underwater.

The night fury struggled to the surface. When he had reached the air, he spat out a mouthful of fluid. He had probably swallowed a lot of it accidentally.

Where was Hiccup? Was he okay? His human had been flinching in pain while they were flying. The rope and the rocks hurt badly – Toothless knew this from experience. The dragon was fairly certain that he had seen his human fall onto the ship. He clawed at the wooden sides, frantically trying to climb up, but it wasn't working.

It was happening again. They had been separated and something very bad was going to happen.

The night fury paddled over to a floating piece of wood with determined strokes. The sound of shrill yelling sounded overhead, quieting much of the ruckus from the battle. As Toothless placed his front legs on the wood and scrabbled for purchase, he tilted his head back to see what was happening. The large boy who rode that female gronckle was carrying the man called Dagur who Toothless really didn't like high above the battle and shrieking something, ordering all those other terrible Vikings who wanted to hurt the riders for no good reason to put down their weapons.

Toothless looked over and saw his human safely on board the ship where the crazy man had been before. Their other human friends had done a good job of knocking over the hostile Berserkers, and nothing terrible seemed likely to happen. Of course, terrible things rarely seemed likely to happen, but they happened all the time anyways, so Toothless didn't put much trust in that.

Then the crazy man yelled something and with a jerking motion, threw his weapon towards Hiccup.

Toothless refused. He absolutely, positively said no. Perhaps the night fury had been unable to make it to his human in time a month ago, but that wasn't going to happen again. That was never going to happen again.

So the black dragon exploded out of the water, pushing off the piece of wood with a burst of energy he hadn't realized he had. Toothless barreled into his human, completely wrapping him in his wings and plowing them both out of the way of the falling missile. As they skidded along the deck, he heard a strange thwacking noise and a snap.

When they had come to a stop, the night fury raised his head, breathing heavily, to search out the cause of the noise.

The blond Viking girl stood, with her arm held out and her body twisted to the side like she had just thrown something and then frozen in place. When Toothless turned his head to look at where the spear had fallen, he saw two halves of a spear, lying uselessly on the deck and an axe, embedded in the wood of the railing, still vibrating.

Astrid had thrown her axe and cut the crazy man's spear in half in mid-air. Deprived of its momentum, the spear had clattered uselessly to the deck, far from its intended target.

"Toothless! Thank goodness you're okay, bud!"

The night fury unfolded his wings a little to examine his human, asking, "Wroo?" Of course _Toothless_ was fine, it was Hiccup who had almost been impaled – _again._

Except, this time, both Toothless and Astrid had saved him.

"You know, you didn't have to do that, bud, I was in the process of –"

"Hiccup!"

Hiccup looked over towards the sound of the blond Viking girl calling his name. He attempted to untangle himself from both Toothless and the bola which was still wrapped around his arms, but failed spectacularly to escape from either.

Toothless had decided that his human needed to apologize for nearly killing himself, and until then, the dragon was perfectly happy to sit on him. Maybe he would continue to sit on him a little longer after that too, just to teach his human a lesson on personal safety.

"Are you okay?" Astrid was now kneeling next to the pair, methodically looking Hiccup over for injuries.

"Well, other than this enormous lump currently squishing me – Toothless, please. This is not necessary."

Ha. The night fury was realizing that he was actually enjoying this enormously. He laid his head down on his human's chest and closed his eyes contentedly. Oh, yes. His human was here, breathing, right here. Toothless hadn't lost him after all. He hadn't failed him.

* * *

Heather's POV

Heather was fairly certain she would remember that moment forever. Dagur had launched his spear at Hiccup, and then Toothless had just come out of nowhere like a juggernaut and swept him out of danger at the same moment that Astrid had thrown her axe with such terrifying accuracy and force that the falling spear had been obliterated. It was a moment that needed to be captured forever – the night fury appearing in an explosion of water to protect his human and the fierce Viking girl posed to take out the threat with deadly determination.

It had been an awesome moment. Heather couldn't quite decide whether or not she would tell Astrid and Toothless that Hiccup had already rolled out of the way by the time they had each made their move. The spear would have thunked harmlessly into the deck of the ship even if the two hadn't been able to protect him.

Heather grinned with satisfaction as she approached Hiccup, who was currently being squished by his night fury while Astrid tried to examine him for injuries, which was rather difficult given Toothless' refusal to get up. Then Hiccup gasped and flinched, and immediately his dragon lifted up and backed off, warbling worriedly. There was a small bloodstain seeping through Hiccup's shirt, and Heather guessed that he had torn some stitches in all the action.

Astrid and Toothless were quite a sight. They were both shockingly haggard, obviously sleep-deprived and underfed. Toothless' scales lacked their usual luster, clinging tightly to his bones. Astrid had enormous bags under her red eyes, her clothes were tattered and singed, and her wrist, which was turning purple, she held close to her side like a bird with an injured wing. It was a little disturbing how much their battered state was at odds with their almost ridiculous happiness.

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs screamed, coming to rest beside them. Meatlug promptly settled herself squat on top of their prisoner, and the sounds of Dagur's yells became pleasantly muffled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, uh, I'm fine. Thanks, Astrid, by the way, but you did see that I was already –"

"Hiccup," Astrid growled, "I will lock you up."

"I could easily see it coming, it was falling from like, a hundred yards up, and I'm not – I'm not completely helpless on my own, you know."

"Says the guy who was just stabbed three weeks ago," Heather interjected smoothly, enjoying Hiccup's defensiveness, even though she had seen that he was right.

"Helpful, Heather," Hiccup deadpanned. "Seriously, I get stabbed _one time_ and all of a sudden no one trusts me to take care of myself anymore."

Astrid's response (which Heather had the feeling she would have enjoyed immensely) was interrupted by Gustav's arrival.

"Hello, everybody! Gustav here, reporting in. We have secured the fleet."

Heather looked around and realized with a shock that they had, indeed, secured the fleet. Shocked and horrified by their leader's capture, the other Berserkers, who had come to rely on Dagur telling them what to do, had been defeated easily by the A-Team, Snotlout, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

"We won," Heather breathed.

"Uhhh," Fishlegs stammered, "What do I do with him?" He gestured towards Meatlug, who seemed a little too comfortable using the Berserker chief as a cushion.

Astrid stood up and strode over to the ship's railing, where she jerked her axe out of the wood it had been stuck in. Then she marched over to Meatlug and motioned for the gronckle to move. Meatlug wasted no time in leaping up and flapping over to huddle next to Fishlegs, whining nervously.

"Dagur! You…" Astrid choked on her sentence, unable to properly express her fury. She hefted her axe menacingly and prepared to swing it at the insane Viking lying before her. Toothless growled and crouched low, similarly preparing to pounce.

Heather remembered the question Hiccup had asked her all that time ago concerning Dagur's death. She had never answered him, mostly because she hadn't known the answer to that question herself.

Dagur had massacred her family and her entire village. But… he also happened to _be_ her family. The only family she had left. And he had released her from Viggo, meaning that the fact that they were family must mean something to him as well.

And suddenly she knew. She didn't want Dagur to die. Not because she thought he didn't deserve it. Not because she thought that Astrid and Toothless were wrong to want revenge. Perhaps Hiccup would disagree with her about that, but Heather understood more than anyone the need for revenge.

But… Heather was so sick of her family dying. She was just so… tired of being alone. She was so lonely, down to her very core. And maybe, on some level, she had grown so used to being alone that she was scared to try and actually change it. Why else had she turned down the riders' offer to stay with them, to have a home and a group of friends for support? She was so tired of being alone, but she was also afraid to leave the loneliness behind.

But Dagur was her brother. The same blood ran through their veins. And all of a sudden, she just realized that she didn't want him to die. She didn't want to be left alone again.

"Astrid, wait."

Heather glanced up at the interruption. Astrid paused, and Toothless relaxed his stance, turning to look curiously at his rider.

"We can't kill Dagur. He's Heather's brother. He's the only family she has left."

Astrid didn't move. She and Hiccup simply locked gazes for a good thirty seconds. The silence was heavy – not confrontational, merely weighted with the somber knowledge that a life hung in the balance.

Finally, the blond Viking relaxed her stance and put down her axe.

"Alright."

Heather felt a tenseness loosen in her chest.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I wanted the climax (which took place in this chapter and the last chapter), to be a moment in which Astrid and Toothless realized that Hiccup was in danger _again_ \- but this time they were able to save him. This was kind of important, especially after Toothless blamed himself so much the first time. Plus, I feel like Astrid really would blame herself (think about how she blamed herself in Astrid's Team in RTTE), but I didn't want to write about that because it would just feel redundant after Toothless blamed himself. So this was kind of a redeeming moment for them.**

 **But at the same time, Hiccup really isn't useless, helpless, or defenseless at all. So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a situation where not only do Toothless and Astrid redeem themselves, but Hiccup isn't totally pathetic either. Of course, he was a little pathetic here (I don't think it would be possible to create this type of situation and avoid that) but it wasn't like - "Oh! He's so defenseless, he's such a troublemaker, Toothless and Astrid have to go rescue him AGAIN." I think that, in the actual series, Hiccup is really very capable and he's rarely the person causing trouble and needing to be rescued. It's pretty much only in fan fiction that he's that way.**

 **Thanks!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: So sorry for the wait! I've had a crappy couple weeks. Plus, studying for finals, add the fact that I'm lazy... And you have over a month long wait. :(**

* * *

Toothless' POV

That night, Toothless had a dream that Hiccup died again. He woke up gasping for breath. Silently, the dragon padded over to his human's bed. He sat there and watched his human breathing in and out and in and out. He was so happy, so relieved and overjoyed to have his human back. A ridiculous and goofily pleased expression covered the night fury's face.

Even though Hiccup had needed to get some new stitches for his wound, he was here, and he was breathing.

Hiccup cracked open one eye and sleepily grinned up at his friend. "What are you doing, bud?"

Toothless' happy expression broadened, if that was possible. He settled down beside Hiccup, curling himself around his human protectively, and fell asleep with that same goofy expression still on his face.

* * *

Hiccup's POV

The morning after the remarkably successful rescue, Hiccup woke up sprawled over his best friend's head. This was not the most terribly unpleasant way to wake up, especially after the past month's loneliness and worry.

Toothless seemed to agree.

When the two left the house together that morning, they found Astrid leaning against the side of the house as if she'd been there for some time.

"Well, hello, milady," Hiccup greeted. "Top of the morning," this with a good-natured smirk.

Astrid pushed off the side of the house jerkily, looking a little embarrassed. "Oh, Hiccup. I was just..." She trailed off, floundering for what to say.

"I'm glad you're here. I was gonna go looking for you," he cut in, and she shook off the momentary awkwardness, reassuming her usual confidence.

"Oh, yeah?"

They began walking down the path leading from his house to the village together. Somehow, their hands managed to find each other and link together, as if all on their own. Hiccup turned to Astrid with a question.

"When we got there, one of the ships was already sinking. I have a feeling you know something about that..."

She grinned at him. "That feeling would be correct." She paused. "I have a question for you too. How did you survive? I mean, what _happened?_ "

"Oh, you know me, I got some help from a dragon. I got a free ride on a scauldron!"

"Because other people _pay_ for rides on a scauldron?" she asked him dryly.

"Weellll, Ruffnut. Probably..."

"Because other _sane_ people pay for rides on a scauldron?"

Hiccup snorted.

"OOGALABOOGALA!"

The twins jumped out in front of Hiccup and Astrid. The pair jumped a little, then leveled Ruffnut and Tuffnut with matching glares. Toothless leaped high into the air like a startled cat, then crouched down menacingly and growled.

"AHAHAHAA! We totally got you!" Tuffnut crowed. Hiccup shook his head and face palmed. Astrid rolled her eyes and shook her head. Then she did something that took all of them totally by surprise. She walked over to the twins and hugged them both, saying, "I missed you two morons."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut stood there frozen, slack-jawed and wide-eyed as Astrid embraced them. She pulled away and then continued sauntering down the path to the village. Hiccup shared a look with Toothless, then fondly scratched the night fury's chin as they followed the blond Viking.

* * *

Ruffnut and Tuffnut's POV

As Hiccup, Toothless, and Astrid disappeared over the hill, Ruffnut and Tuffnut continued to stand there in shock.

"I was not expecting that," Ruffnut stated in an awed voice.

"Yeah," Tuffnut agreed in the same subdued tone. Then, sounding rather insulted, he continued, "If we can't make _Astrid_ mad..."

"Then who are we?" Ruffnut finished.

The two looked at each other in silence.

"NO!" Tuffnut exclaimed dramatically. "We are Thorstons! We never give up!"

"Except for when we feel like quitting!" Ruffnut yelled excitedly.

Their crazy laughter echoed through Berk.

* * *

Snotlout's POV

Snotlout was having a generally good morning. They had defeated Dagur yesterday - yeah, baby, that's right! They had rescued Astrid and Toothless, and they were both relatively unharmed. Of course, Toothless had refused to leave Hiccup's side all yesterday and probably wouldn't be seen anywhere else for a while, but Astrid was a different story. She was fair game for everyone.

Snotlout strode into the training arena looking for Astrid. He had stopped by her house, but her parents had said that she had left early that morning. He saw the blond standing with her back to him, talking with Hiccup. Toothless was resting peacefully nearby. Snotlout raised his hand in the air, about to call out to her when -

Oh Thor! What in the name of Loki? They were - they were kissing!

"Ewwwwwwww!"

Astrid and Hiccup paused to look over at the sound.

"Babe? I can't believe you would do this to me!"

Astrid rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hip. "Seriously, Snotlout?"

"I just... I'm just hurt, babe. But, you know what? I can forgive you. Come here, it's okay."

Astrid narrowed her eyes. "Snotlout, I cannot believe you."

"I know. It's hard for me to believe how big of a person I am too. Bring it in, babe. Don't be afraid to cry it out."

Astrid huffed angrily and began marching over to Snotlout. "Oh, I _am_ going to bring it. I just won't be the one crying," she muttered threateningly. Snotlout's surprise at seeing Astrid and Hiccup together quickly changed to apprehension.

Just then, Hiccup held out his hand and stepped in front of Astrid. "Uh, milady, do you mind if I take this one?"

Astrid's angry expression changed to surprise. "Sure," she grinned.

Snotlout wasn't sure what to think when Hiccup stood in front of him with a dark look on his face. "Look, Snotlout, Astrid is my girlfriend now, so would you mind - would you mind not being terribly disgusting?"

Snotlout was still rather shocked, and now he was offended. Although he had never really thought about it much, Snotlout had never _really_ expected that Astrid would get together with him. He had seen her kissing Hiccup a few times when they were younger though, so he had always had his suspicions about those two. But they had gone so long without actually doing anything, that he had figured they had dropped it.

Snotlout needed to preserve his pride. This situation was ridiculous, but no one would ever see him admit that Hiccup had managed to beat Snotlout.

"Disgusting? I think if Astrid tried kissing me, she wouldn't have much trouble deciding which of us is disgusting."

That was when Hiccup punched him.

The next five minutes were a little hazy, but he could still hear Astrid remark, "Hiccup Haddock, you've been holding back on me."

"What?" Awkward fake laughter.

As the two walked out of the arena, Astrid passed by Snotlout. She stopped, then reached down and held out a hand. Snotlout groaned and whined, "Astrid?" He limply lifted his hand and she hoisted him to his feet. Only to twist his arm around behind his back.

"Snotlout, you and I will never _ever_ happen. Got it?"

"Fine!" Snotlout whimpered. She released him, and he stood there pouting, his lip curled down.

As Astrid and Hiccup disappeared out the entrance to the arena, shadowed by Toothless, Astrid asked teasingly, "Girlfriend, huh?"

Hiccup's stuttered response was inaudible as they walked away, further obscured by Astrid's laughter.

* * *

Ruffnut and Tuffnut's POV

Ruffnut and Tuffnut found Astrid, Hiccup, and Toothless curled up together in the cove where Hiccup had first met and befriended Toothless.

The twins were determined to find a way to annoy Astrid. After all, they had dedicated their lives to Loki, the god of pranks, and that would mean nothing if they failed to frustrate Astrid - who had a notoriously short temper.

"We know a song that can get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves! We know a song that can get on your nerves, and this is how it goes -"

The twins, who had started chanting this song and skipping gleefully in circles the moment they spotted Astrid, paused and simultaneously took a deep breath -

"WE KNOW A SONG THAT CAN GET ON YOUR NERVES, GET ON YOUR NERVES, GET ON -"

"Seriously?" Hiccup queried. "You guys, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He yelled over their obnoxious singing.

Tuffnut took a break from the song to call, "We're singing a song I made up! Do you like it? Can you tell that I wrote it?"

"Hey!" Ruffnut yelled. "We both wrote it!"

"Oh dear sister, I'm so sorry you've forgotten, but it was _I_ who composed this masterpiece!" He turned to their gawking audience and whispered, "She's been forgetting things lately. You know how things are when they get old."

Hiccup's eye was twitching. However, the twins were completely focused on Astrid, looking at her expectantly.

She grinned. "Man, am I glad to be home." She sighed contentedly and leaned back against Toothless, resting her head on Hiccup's shoulder.

Tuffnut gasped. Ruffnut's mouth dropped open. They looked at each other, then scuttled away as quickly as they could. Tuffnut muttered, "I told you that wouldn't work!"

"What are you talking about? It was your idea!"

"How is this possible? That song was just so... so beautiful. I mean, it brings tears to my eyes, the range of the emotional resonance!" Tuffnut waved his hands dramatically, emphasizing his words.

"We really _are_ totally useless."

"No." Tuffnut stopped and held out his hand. "We just need to be smart about this!"

"Smart? But... I thought we promised that we would never do that! You're suggesting that we break the pact?" Ruffnut asked, her arms akimbo.

"Maybe smart isn't the right term... perhaps: fiendishly clever?"

Ruffnut smiled.

* * *

 **Bleh, so I really wanted to be finished with this chapter, but it just got too long. Don't worry about waiting for the next one, though, I'm on a roll right now... hopefully I haven't just jinxed myself.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Yo. So, long story short, my mom had surgery (a hysterectomy), and the surgeon totally screwed it up and nearly killed her. So basically, she was at the hospital for a really long time, and then she had to stay in bed for months, and I've been acting as substitute mom for my four younger siblings. Oh, and I forgot the password to the document where I was writing this story. I'm really, really sorry for making you guys wait. :(**

* * *

Hiccup's POV

Hiccup and Toothless and Astrid had retreated to the cove where Hiccup had first met and befriended Toothless. They sat curled up against the back of the cuddly black dragon and relaxed, talking lazily and catching up. The day passed peacefully, and for the first time in a while, Hiccup found his muscles un-tensing. He had been sore for the past month, stress causing tension, especially around his prosthetic. it felt good to just lay with his best friend and girl friend and feel like the weight of the world wasn't resting on his shoulders.

And then the peace was disturbed.

They did live on the same island as the Thorstons. That pretty much guaranteed that any peace you could ever find would be disturbed.

The twins' two-headed dragon swooped down from the sky and snagged Hiccup from the pile of warmth and relaxation he had been enjoying.

"Seriously, guys? What? Why are you _kidnapping_ me?"

Ruffnut leaned down and around so that her braids were flapping in Hiccup's face. "WE JUST WANTED TO ANNOY ASTRID! LOOK! SHE'S ANGRY!"

"Finally," Tuffnut sighed with satisfaction. Hiccup groaned.

When he looked down, he could see that Astrid was indeed angry. Very angry.

Oh dear.

"You should probably put me down now!" Hiccup yelled.

The twins laughed maniacally.

"This is definitely going to end well."

Five minutes later, the twins were lying tangled up on the ground, bruised and moaning, as Astrid stood over them gripping her axe menacingly.

"If you muttonheads come near us again, your parents will never find your bodies. Do you understand me, you useless morons?"

"I dunno, my dad has a pretty good tracker dragon." Tuffnut answered innocently.

"Yeah, he could probably find two dead bodies. Dead bodies kinda stink, you know?" Ruffnut nodded at her brother.

" _You_ stink," Tuffnut shot back.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

Hiccup laughed nervously and grabbed Astrid's arm, leading her away from the bickering trouble-makers.

* * *

Snotlout's POV

Snotlout wandered the beach in misery, bewailing the loss of the love of his life. Oh Astrid! So beautiful! So strong and smart - and Hiccup had stolen her away!

Then he spotted Ruffnut sitting on the dock, petting Scauldy.

During the battle, Ruffnut had been pretty awesome. Riding the scauldron against the Berserkers like that - so hoot!

Snotlout sauntered over.

* * *

Fishleg's POV

Life was good again. Hiccup was healing, Astrid and Toothless were back, the Berserkers were finally defeated. Yes. Life was good.

Fishlegs patted Meatlug. Such a good girl! But she was tired from the battle, so he let her rest. Then he set out in search of Hiccup. As he walked down the beach, he saw Ruffnut. She was seated at the edge of the dock, legs swinging above the water, and she was gently rubbing Scauldy.

Scauldy was a beautiful dragon. And Ruffnut was being so kind and gentle... she looked kinda... beautiful.

Fishlegs started heading in her direction. Then he saw Snotlout coming towards Ruffnut as well, with a smug smirk on his face. They stared at each for a moment, then looked at Ruffnut, then looked back at each other.

Fishlegs scowled. Oh, it was on.

* * *

 **Sorry if that was too short for some people, but I kinda just wanted to wrap it up. My first fanfiction! Eeee! Love you all, and thank you so much, everyone who liked and favorited and commented. :D**


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